UC-NRLF 


The  RELIGION 

ofThe 

SPIRITUAL 
EVOLUTION 

of  MAN 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT    OF 


Class 


The  Refigion 


OF  THE 


Spiritual  Evolution  of  flan 


CHICAGO 

E.  A.  ROGERS 

4O7-429   DEARBORN   ST, 


(Si, -4 
Wf 


COPYRIGHT   191O 

ANONYMOUS 


DEDICATION 

THIS  BOOK  IS,  OF  NECESSITY, 
DEDICATED 

TO  ALL  MANKIND 


203759 


OF   THE  \ 

UNIVERSITY    I 

OF  / 

H&^ 


PREFACE. 

THE  name  of  the  author  would  add  nothing  to 
the  weight  of  this  book,  and  for  reasons  which  seem 
justifiable  it  is  published  anonymously. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  the  author  has  felt  that 
Science  owed  to  humanity  a  religious  philosophy 
which  would  comprehend  all  ascertained  truth  and 
assert  its  rational  relations  to  the  Infinite  One. 

More  than  a  decade  ago  the  loss  of  one  whose 
wifely  companionship  greatly  blest  the  author's  life, 
led  to  a  deeper  study  of  the  import  of  the  great 
process  under  which  man  has  evolved,  and  always 
there  has  appeared  to  the  author  the  urgent  neces- 
sity for  a  constructive  religious  work  which  would 
definitely  advocate  the  acceptance  and  strong  organi- 
zation of  a  religion  which  looked  only  to  Science  and 
rationality  for  its  authority. 

This  book  is  an  attempt  to  answer  that  necessity. 
The  intent  of  the  book  is  not  that  of  a  philosophical 
treatise.  It  assumes  much  as  scientific  truth  which 
is  so  demonstrated  in  the  observations  and  conclu- 
sions of  evolutionary  scientists  and  philosophers  dur- 
ing the  past  half-century. 

It  is  not  claimed  as  a  work  of  original  thought. 
It  is  presented  as  a  work  of  assimilation,  suggestion 
and  construction.  The  author  cannot  fitly  acknowl- 
edge in  this  work  the  assistance  given  by  many  writers 

5 


0  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

to  whom  the  ideas  of  the  book  assimilated  in  part,  owe 
their  origin  or  development,  as  the  sources  are  lit- 
erally hundreds  in  number.  Some  are  shown  in 
the  book  itself,  but  modern  scientific  thought  in  the 
field  of  ethics  is  everywhere  pregnant  with  all  which 
this  book  constructively  re-states. 

The  attempt  is  made  not  only  to  fill  the  construc- 
tive necessity  of  the  process  which  makes  for  right- 
eousness, for  the  comprehension  of  evolutionists  who 
have  thrown  away  the  shackles  of  Christian  orthodoxy, 
but  also  to  suggest,  in  relative  simplicity,  to  those  who 
are  still  clinging  to  fragments  of  orthodoxy  under 
the  name  of  "the  higher  criticism,"  that  there  is  a 
loftier  and  holier  field  for  their  endeavors  in  attain- 
ing harmony  with  the  scientifically  revealed  purposes 
of  the  Infinite  One  than  in  trying  to  reconcile  the 
sayings  of  a  religious  teacher  of  twenty  centuries 
ago  with  the  great  import  of  the  Spiritual  Evolution 
of  man.  Another  object  is  to  stimulate  amongst  all 
men  a  never-ending  search  for  all  truth. 

The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  a  certain  un- 
worthiness  in  presenting  such  a  work  to  his  fellow- 
men.  He  does  not  feel  that  either  his  outward  life 
or  his  inner  self  has  been  such  that  it  has  best 
conformed  to  the  high  ideals  of  the  Religion  of  the 
Spiritual  Evolution  of  Man,  and  yet  he  has  longed 
greatly  for  a  chance  to  help  in  the  organization  and 
development  of  this  religion  of  the  future,  and  always 
has  supremely  felt  in  his  soul  the  highest  love  and 
worship  of  the  Infinite  One.  • 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    NEW    DAY 

THAT  there  is  a  new  day  dawning  in  the  Spiritual 
life  of  mankind,  a  day  whose  growing  light  will 
unite  many  of  the  farthest  evolved  of  the  race  in 
strongest  purpose  for  the  uplifting  of  the  souls  of  all 
men,  is  not  now  a  dream  of  idealists,  but  a  fact  of 
evolution  plainly  discernible. 

That  there  is  the  highest  and  greatest  work  for 
humanity  ever  attempted  now  devolving  upon  those 
who  see  the  light  and  who  temporarily  represent  the 
most  advanced  in  the  upward  current  of  racial  evolu- 
tion seems  very  clear. 

That  within  strict  fidelity  and  adherence  to  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  eternal  truth,  there  lies  a  won- 
derful constructive  religion,  higher  in  its  purposes 
and  immeasurably  truer  in  its  relation  to  the  Infi- 
nite One  than  any  of  the  religions  of  the  past  or  any 
other  religion  or  cult  of  today,  is  now  the  firm  convic- 
tion of  many  who  have  been  seeking  the  fundamen- 
tal truths  of  existence.  That  the  world  for  more 
than  half  a  century  has  been  rapidly  growing  towards 
the  actual  strong  constructive  organization  of  the 
Heligion  of  the  Spiritual  Evolution  of  Man  will  soon 
be  clear  to  the,  now,  very  large  number  of  thinking 
men  and  women,  who,  more  or  less  distinctly,  have 

7 


8  THE  EELIGION  OF  THE 

seen  the  coming  of  the  great  day  when  Science  and 
Eeligion  shall  be  one  in  very  truth. 

If  the  message  of  this  book  fails  not,  then  we,  who 
see  the  light  of  the  dawn  of  this  better  day  for 
humanity,  will  soon  bend  every  best  endeavor  of  our 
souls  towards  establishing  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual 
Evolution,  the  religion  of  Science,  which  must  of 
necessity  be  the  great  religion  of  the  future,  and 
ultimately  the  universal  religion  of  earth. 


That  this  coming  religion  will  seek  as  its  greatest 
purpose  "Kace  Salvation/'  through  united  effort  of 
its  adherents  to  uplift  all  humanity  to  higher  spiritual 
planes  of  living,  will  distinguish  it  in  part  from 
a  religion  which  places  individual  salvation,  as  a 
paramount  duty,  and  this  new  religion  will  correl- 
atively  teach  that  the  only  individual  salvation  which 
is  worthy  and  which  belongs  within  the  great  design 
of  the  Infinite  One  is  to  be  gained  by  constantly 
striving  to  make  the  race  itself  advance  spiritually. 


To  one  who  has  pondered  for  years  over  the  grow- 
ing inadequacy  of  any  organized  religion  of  the  pres- 
ent to  fairly  meet,  within  the  realms  of  truth  and 
knowledge,  the  spiritual  wants  of  educated  human- 
ity, there  has  been  brought  the  increasing  conviction 
through  a  decade,  that  there  remains  for  humanity 
a  revelation,  through  Science  itself,  of  a  new  religion 
which  can  be  accepted  by  every  human  being  who 
dares  to  think  for  himself  and  seek  the  truth,  and  the 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  9 

message  of  this  book  is  written  for  each  man  or 
woman  of  the  race  who  will  open  his  or  her  eyes  to 
the  real  problems  of  existence,  and  who  will  fearlessly 
cast  away  superstition,  ignorant  faith  and  false 
beliefs. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  BREAKING   OP   IMAGES 

BEFORE  attempting  the  constructive  portion  of  this 
book  it  may  be  well  to  briefly  state  wherein  the  Relig- 
ion of  Spiritual  Evolution  must  necessarily  destroy 
the  false  images  of  spiritual  life  which  Christianity 
and  other  religions  have  set  up  for  humanity  to 
believe  in  and  to  worship. 

Borrowing  materially  in  ideas  from  the  recent  lec- 
ture of  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot  upon  "The  Religion  of 
the  Future"  the  adaptation  is  made  to  conform  to  the 
further  purpose  of  this  work. 


I.  With  the  coming  of  the  Religion  of  Spiritual 
Evolution,  no  longer  among  reasoning  men  and 
women  shall  the  ideas  prevail  that  individual  salvation 
is  the  necessity  of  any  soul,  in  the  sense  that  the  Infi- 
nite one  had  become  angered  at  the  children  of  men 
and  perforce  had  to  require  a  blood  sacrifice  of  the  life 
of  an  innocent  man,  even  His  own  son,  to  appease  His 
wrath,  and  that  only  the  souls  of  those  who  accepted 
this  vicarious  atonement  could  survive  destruction 
or  torture.  Such  an  idea  as  the  sacrifice  of  a  Son  of 
God,  while  higher  in  an  ethical  scale,  is  one  with 

10 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  11 

the  idea  that  burnt  offerings  of  beasts  or  human 
beings  can  placate  the  wrath  of  God. 

The  Keligion  of  the  Spiritual  Evolution  of  Man 
holds  supremely  higher  concepts  of  the  Infinite  One. 
The  import  of  the  Cosmic  Process  (the  process  which 
evidences  the  unfolding  and  progress  of  everything 
which  exists  in  the  Universe,  including  Matter, 
Force,  Life  and  Spirit),  as  revealed  through  science 
and  exhibited  in  the  life  history  of  the  race  of  man- 
kind on  earth,  is  unalterably  opposed  to  any  idea 
that  any  man  at  any  time  aroused  the  wrath  of  the 
Creator  of  the  process.  The  shadow  of  the  "wrath 
of  God"  has  never  been  a  reality,  and  its  menace  in  the 
souls  of  man  which  has  often  darkened  lives,  and  has 
well  served  priests  to  bind  humanity  with  chains  of 
fear,  when  Science  brings  the  strong  light  of  truth 
to  the  problems  of  man,  simply  represents  certain 
effects  of  the  forces  of  evolution. 

What  man,  be  he  priest  or  prophet,  dares  to  impute 
to  the  Infinite  One,  who  rules  in  infinite  spirituality 
a  universe  of  countless  millions  of  solar  systems,  an 
attribute  of  wrath  against  any  soul  which  owes  its 
existence  solely  to  His  great  process. 

President  Eliot  says : 

"The  religion  of  the  future  will  not  be  propitiatory, 
sacrificial  or  expiatory.  In  primitive  society,  fear  of 
the  supernal  powers,  as  represented  in  the  awful 
forces  of  nature,  was  the  root  of  religion/-'  These 
dreadful  powers  must  be  propitiated  or  placated  and 
they  must  be  propitiated  by  sacrifices  in  the  most  lit- 


12  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

eral  sense ;  and  the  supposed  offenses  of  man  must  be 
expiated  by  sufferings  which  were  apt  to  be  vicarious. 
Even  the  Hebrews  offered  human  sacrifices  for  gen- 
erations, and  always  a  great  part  of  their  religious 
rites  consisted  in  sacrifices  of  animals."  *-'' 


II.  That  the  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution 
rejects  wholly  so-called  "revelations,"  conversations 
of  the  Infinite  One  with  human  beings,  "inspired" 
visions,  messages  from  God  on  golden  plates,  or  tab- 
lets of  stone,  and  such  child-like  conceptions  of  the 
way  man  shall  ascertain  the  truth  or  learn  the  Will 
of  the  Infinite  One,  need  not  shock  any  reasoning 
person. 

It  is  not  compatible  with  any  rational  view  of  the 
truths  of  Science  that  the  Creator  of  the  Process 
which  has  brought  mankind  to  the  present  stage  of 
race  advancement,  ever  directed  and  commanded  the 
awful  cruelties  ascribed  by  the  Hebrews  in  their 
Bible  to  Him,  Whose  unalterable  purpose  for  the  chil- 
dren of  men  has  been  that  they  shall  progress  towards 
higher  ideals.  Nor  can  it  be  true  that  even  the  lofty 
thoughts  of  so-called  "inspired  writers"  were  directly 
revealed  by  the  Infinite  One.  It  is  actually  within 
the  Spiritual  Process  that  great  uplifting  thoughts 
shall  come  to  those  who  are  temporarily  the  highest 
evolved  of  humanity ;  the  process  itself  demands  this, 
but  this  is  not  direct  revelation  and  may  be  only  the 
foreshadowing  of  truth,  and  not  truth  itself. 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  13 

There  are  revelations  of  science  which  conform  to 
eternal  truth  and  reveal  the  Will  of  the  Infinite  One, 
and  these  revelations  cast  aside  every  false  or  deluded 
claim  of  every  religion  which  represents  its  founder 
or  its  prophets  as  directly  inspired  of  God  or  receiving 
messages  from  God. 


III.  No  race,  or  people,  or  sect  has  ever  been 
"the  chosen  people  of  God."  Neither  Israel,  nor 
Islam,  neither  Jew  nor  Christian,  neither  Catholic 
nor  Protestant  nor  Buddhist,  nor  any  other  class  of 
religionists  has  at  any  time  been  "chosen  of  God" 
for  any  purpose.  The  evolutional  process  is  not  one 
which  can  possibly  admit  of  either  racial,  religious,  or 
individual  "favorites"  of  the  Creator  of  the  Process. 
Differences  in  the  condition  of  advancement  of  the 
several  races  and  nations  of  the  earth  eventuate 
through  the  operation  of  social,  economic  and  spiritual 
laws  and  not  because  the  Infinite  One  stultifies  His 
Divine  Plan  by  purposely  selecting  "favorites" 
amongst  the  evolving  races  of  man. 


IV.  The  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  leaves 
no  room  in  the  universe  for  any  "devil"  and,  likewise, 
rejects  entirely  the  doctrine  of  a  hell  and  eternal, 
or  any  damnation  of  the  wicked.  If  the  wicked  sur- 
vive physical  death  their  souls  must  survive  as  poten- 
tially capable  of  advancement  towards  righteousness; 
there  seems  to  be  no  other  conclusion  under  the 


14  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

process  which  is  evidenced  in  Spiritual  Evolution. 

The  personification  of  imaginary  evil  forces,  into 
a  devil  and  his  fallen  angels,  finds  no  place  in  the 
truths  of  science.  As  Dr.  Eliot  says :  "The  religion 
of  the  future  .  .  .  will  believe  in  no  malignant 
powers,  neither  in  Satan  nor  in  witches,  nor  in  the 
malign  suggestion.  When  its  disciple  encounters  a 
wrong  or  evil  in  the  world,  his  impulse  will  be  to 
search  out  its  origin,  source,  or  cause,  that  he  may 
attack  it  at  its  starting-point.  He  may  not  speculate 
on  the  origin  of  evil  in  general,  but  will  surely  try 
to  discover  the  best  way  to  eradicate  the  particular  evil 
or  wrong  he  has  recognized." 


V.  So,  too,  the  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution 
does  not  admit  within  its  scope  the  Heaven  of  Chris- 
tianity. Science  lends  no  atom  of  truth  to  the  idea 
that  the  physical  body  of  man  will  survive  physical 
death  or  ever  be  resurrected  from  the  grave,  or 
that  any  man  will  be  changed  to  a  perfect  being  in  the 
twinkle  of  an  eye.  The  body  is  merely  the  physical 
machine  which  human  personality  uses  in  its  sojourn 
on  earth  and,  as  will  be  shown  hereafter,  the  import 
of  the  great  Spiritual  process  under  which  person- 
ality makes  its  earthly  pilgrimage,  is,  that  with  its 
individuality  unimpaired,  man's  personality,  his  soul 
(at  least,  if  fit)  passes  the  cataclasm  of  physical  death 
just  as  it  is,  to  progress  higher  and  higher  in  a 
spiritual  realm,  and  that  no  magic  change  perfects 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OP  MAN  15 

his  character  spiritually,  but  he  must  ever  strive 
and  learn  the  higher  way,  in  that  realm  beyond  the 
grave. 


VI.  The  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution,  for  rea- 
sons hereafter  stated,  wholly  denies  that  any  "miracle" 
ever  occurred.  The  great  process  admits  of  nothing 
supernatural.  The  process  and  its  ever-changing 
results  are  revelations  of  the  Infinite  One,  and  there 
is  no  room  for  even  a  belief  of  supernatural  inter- 
vention within  either  human  rationality  or  sane 
human  faith. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   REIGN   OP   LAW 

"BE  there  or  be  there  not  any  other  revelation,  we 
have  a  veritable  revelation  in  science — a  continuous 
disclosure  through  the  intelligence  with  which  we  are 
endowed — of  the  established  order  of  the  universe. 

' '  This  disclosure  it  is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  verify,  and 
having  verified  to  receive  it  with  all  humility." 

— Herbert  Spencer,  First  Principles. 

!STo  religion  which  does  not  find  itself  at  oneness 
with  all  that  science  discloses  can  survive;  for  science 
is  simply  the  truth  of  the  Infinite  One.  So,  too,  no 
religion  which  is  not  broad  enough  to  adapt  itself  to 
the  ever-widening  disclosures  of  science  is  worthy  of 
adoption  by  all  men.  That  the  Religion  of  Spiritual 
Evolution  must,  of  supreme  necessity,  be  always  in 
unity  with  science  and  must,  of  like  necessity,  always 
welcome  every  rational  advance  of  knowledge,  will 
hereafter  be  demonstrated.  That  this  new  religion  is 
based  upon  the  verities  of  the  universe  and  of  the 
Cosmic  Process  in  its  fullest  import  is  the  primal 
belief  of  those  who  are  ready  to  teach  humanity 
its  greatness  and  its  truth.  If  we  fail  at  any  time  to 
properly  comprehend  the  real  "revelations"  of  the 
Infinite  One,  as  disclosed  in  this  great  process,  it  shall 

16 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  17 

not  be  aught  than  our  personal  failure,  and  cannot 
change  the  ultimate  verity  of  the  revelations  nor  the 
power  of  the  religion  to  bring  men  throughout  all 
future  time  into  uplifting  unison  with  the  very 
purposes  of  God. 


It  is  quite  essential  that  anyone  who  wishes  to  com- 
prehend the  foundations  of  the  Eeligion  of  the  Spir- 
itual Evolution  of  Man  shall  first  be  satisfied  that 
throughout  the  universe  there  exists  "established' l^ 
order."  Most  of  us  recognize  now  that  day  and  night, 
the  seasons,  the  revolutions  of  the  moon  around  the 
Earth,  the  revolutions  of  the  Earth  around  the  Sun, 
the  growth  of  all  vegetation,  the  blowing  of  winds, 
the  falling  of  rain  and  snow,  the  flowing  of  rivers, 
and,  in  fact,  all  of  the  usual  physical  phenomena  of 
ordinary  human  observation  do  not  occur  hap-hazard 
or  by  chance,  but  belong  to  the  "established  order 
of  the  universe." 

So,  too,  if  we  will  reflect,  we  must  admit  that  all 
animal  life  (excluding  man  for  the  present)  has  its 
"established  order"  of  existence.  We  know  that  we 
rely  upon  the  laws  of  animal  life  in  all  our  relation- 
ship with  the  lower  creatures.  We  may  not  have 
learned  all  that  Darwin  and  his  scientific  successors 
have  taught  of  the  evolutional  laws  which  relate  to 
animal  life,  but  we  can  understand  well  that  the 
life  process  from  egg  to  the  individual  animal  is  one 
of  so  established  an  order  that  man  relies  upon  it 


18  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

every  day  in  breeding  and  fostering  animal  life.  It 
is  therefore  not  very  hard  to  comprehend  that  the 
physical  life  of  the  lowlier  animals,  including  the 
functions  of  their  bodies,  their  birth,  their  growth 
from  infancy,  their  nutrition,  and  finally  their  death, 
when  natural,  all  conform  to  the  "established  order" 
or,  if  you  please,  to  the  "laws"  of  their  existence.  Also 
the  wonderful  laws  under  which  all  life  evolves  and 
to  which  even  all  inorganic  matter  yields  obedience 
are  now  within  man's  knowledge  to  a  large  extent. 

It  may  require  a  little  deeper  thought  on  the  part 
of  those  who  have  not  learned  the  broader  truths  of 
the  evolution  of  all  that  exists  to  comprehend  that 
man,  as  far  as  his  physical  life  is  concerned,  like 
other  animals,  exists  under  an  "established  order" 
and  while  it  may  be  quite  demonstrable  that,  unlike 
other  animals,  his  physical  existence  may  be  affected 
in  many  ways  by  the  operation  of  laws  which  relate 
to  his  mentality  and  his  spirituality,  yet  we  should 
not,  through  any  hasty  deductions,  place  man  outside 
of  the  "established  order  of  the  universe."  To  the 
contrary,  as  soon  as  one  can  comprehend  that  there 
is  a  great  unity  in  everything  in  the  Universe  which 
science  has  brought  within  the  knowledge  of  human- 
ity, and  that  every  advance  of  human  knowledge  or  of 
human  reasoning  simply  verifies  strongly  the  concept 
that  this  "established  order  of  the  universe"  consti- 
tutes a  great  "Process"  in  which  the  whole  universe, 
including  everything  therein  contained,  has  always 
moved  on  in  the  courses  of  evolution,  just  as  soon  will 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  <g> 

the  overwhelming  import  of  the  Cosmic  Process  in  its 
relation  to  mankind  become  clearer  and  clearer  and 
just  so  soon  will  we  gain  a  growing  conviction  that 
even  man's  moral  life  may  be  affected  by  spiritual 
laws. 


It  is  also  essential  to  any  fair  comprehension  of  the 
Process  of  God,  the  Cosmic  Process,  that  we  should 
understand  that,  in  a  large  sense,  the  entire  process 
goes  on  under  the  reign  of  laws  which  govern,  affect 
and  influence  every  one  of  the  untold  myriad  of 
changes  which  are  constantly  going  on  within  the 
totality  of  the  phenomena  of  the  universe.  Spencer 
says  that  our  "recognition  of  law"  is  simply  "the 
recognition  of  uniformity  of  relations  among  phenom- 
ena/' It  is  believable,  however,  that  in  the  new 
religion  we  shall  demonstrate  that  the  laws  of  the 
universe  evidence  the  unchanging  will  of  the  Infinite 
One,  and  that  in  recognizing  and  defining  laws 
we  are  learning  the  design  of  the  Almighty.  But 
here  Spencer  can  give  us  great  aid  in  rationally 
determining  the  Universality  of  Laws.  In  his  essay 
on  "Laws  and  the  Order  of  Their  Discovery,"  he  says : 

"The  recognition  of  Law  being  the  recognition  of 
uniformity  of  relations  among  phenomena  it  follows 
that  the  order  in  which  different  groups  of  phenomena 
are  reduced  to  law  must  depend  on  the  frequency 
with  which  the  uniform  relations  they  severally  dis- 
play are  distinctly  experienced. 


20  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

"At  any  given  stage  of  progress  those  uniformities 
will  be  best  known  with  which  men's  minds  have  been 
oftenest  and  most  strongly  impressed.  In  proportion 
partly  to  the  number  of  times  a  relation  has  been  •pre- 
sented to  consciousness  (not  merely  to  the  senses) 
and  in  proportion  partly  to  the  vividness  with  which 
the  terms  of  the  relation  have  been  cognized  will  be 
the  degree  in  which  the  constancy  of  connection  is 
perceived/' 

"The  succession  in  which  relations  are  generalized 
being  thus  determined  there  result  certain  derivative 
principles  to  which  this  succession  must  more  immedi- 
ately and  obviously  conform." 

1st.  "The  directness  with  which  personal  welfare 
is  affected." 

2nd.  "The  conspicuousness  of  one  or  both  phe- 
nomena between  which  a  relation  is  to  be  perceived/' 

3rd.     "The  relative  frequency  of  occurrence/' 

4th.  "The  succession  in  which  different  classes 
of  relations  are  reduced  to  law  depends  in  part  on 
their  simplicity." 

5th.  "Fifth  comes  the  degree  of  abstractness. 
Concrete  relations  are  the  earliest  acquisitions.  Such 
analyses  of  them  as  separate  the  essential  connections 
from  their  disguising  accompaniments  necessarily 
come  later.  The  analyses  of  the  connections,  always 
more  or  less  compound,,  into  their  elements  then 
becomes  possible.  And  so  continually  until  the  high- 
est and  most  abstract  truths  have  been  reached." 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  21 

"Having  roughly  analyzed  the  progress  of  the 
past,  let  us  take  advantage  of  the  light  thus  thrown 
on  the  present  and  consider  what  is  implied  respecting 
the  future. 

"Note  first  that  the  likelihood  of  the  Universality 
of  Law  has  heen  ever  growing  greater." 

"Out  of  the  countless  co-existences  and  sequences 
with  which  mankind  are  environed  they  have  been 
continually  transferring  some  group  whose  order 
was  supposed  to  be  arbitrary  to  the  group  whose  order 
is  known  to  be  uniform.  And,  manifestly,  as  fast  as 
the  relations  that  are  unreduced  to  law  become  fewer, 
the  probability  that  among  them  there  are  some  that 
do  not  conform  to  law  becomes  less.  To  put  the 
argument  numerically,  it  is  clear  that  when  out  of 
surrounding  phenomena  a  hundred  of  several  kinds 
have  been  found  to  occur  in  constant  connections 
there  arises  a  slight  presumption  that  all  phenomena 
occur  in  constant  connections.  When  uniformity  has 
been  established  in  a  thousand  cases  more  varied  in 
their  kinds,  the  presumption  gains  strength.  And 
when  the  Icnown  cases  of  uniformity  amount  to  myr- 
iads, including  many  of  each  variety,  it  becomes  an 
ordinary  induction  that  uniformity  exists  every- 
where." 

"Silently  and  insensibly  their  experiences  have  been 
pressing  men  on  toward  the  conclusion  thus  drawn. 
Not  out  of  a  conscious  regard  for  these  reasons,  but 
from  a  habit  of  thought  which  these  reasons  formu- 
laic and  justify  all  minds  have  been  advancing  toward 


22  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

a  belief  in  the  constancy  of  surrounding  co-existences 
and  sequences.  Familiarity  with  concrete  uniformi- 
ties has  generated  the  abstract  conception  of  unifor- 
mity— the  idea  of  LAW;  and  this  idea  has  been  in 
successive  generations  slowly  gaining  fixity  and 

clearness/" 

******* 

"This  habitual  recognition  of  law,  which  already 
distinguishes  modern  thought  from  ancient  thought, 
must  spread  among  men  at  large.  The  fulfillment 
of  predictions  made  possible  by  every  new  step,  and 
the  further  command  gained  of  nature's  forces,  prove 
to  the  uninitiated  the  validity  of  scientific  generaliza- 
tions and  the  doctrine  they  illustrate.  Widening 
Education  is  daily  diffusing  among  the  mass  of  men 
that  knowledge  of  these  generalizations  which  has 
hitherto  been  confined  to  the  few.  And  as  fast  as  this 
diffusion  goes  on,  must'  the  belief  of  the  scientific 
become  the  belief  of  the  world  at  large" 

That  LAW  IS  UNIVEESAL  will  become  an  irre- 
sistible conclusion  when  it  is  perceived  that  THE 
PROGRESS  IN  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  LAWS 

ITSELF  CONFORMS  TO  LAW." 

******* 

"Having  long  ago  proved  uniformity  throughout  all 
the  lower  classes  of  relations  and  having  been  step 
by  step  proving  uniformity  throughout  all  classes 
of  relations  successively  higher  and  higher  if  we  have 
not  yet  succeeded  with  the  highest  classes  it  may 
be  fairly  concluded  that  our  powers  are  at  fault 


SPIEITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  23 

rather  than  that  the  uniformity  does  not  exist;  and 
unless  we  make  the  absurd  assumption  that  the  proc- 
ess of  generalization  now  going  on  with  unexampled 
rapidity  lias  reached  its  limit  and  will  suddenly  cease, 
we  must  infer  that,  ultimately,  mankind  will  dis- 
cover a  constant  order  of  manifestation  even  in  the 
most  involved  and  obscure  phenomena." 


It  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  by  anyone  who  has 
given  any  serious  thought  to  the  question,  that  men, 
as  moral  beings,  are  subject  to  moral  forces  which 
evidence  certain  laws  which  affect  the  ethical  growth 
of  individuals  and  communities.  Laws  of  environ- 
ment and  heredity  so  plainly  affect  every  human 
being  it  ought  not  to  be  disputed  that  in  some 
degree  the  reign  of  law  extends  into  the  Spiritual 
life  of  mankind.  It  will,  furthermore,  not  be  diffi- 
cult of  belief  (when  the  full  import  of  the  process 
under  which  we  live  is  understood),  that  our  whole 
Spiritual  life  is  within  a  realm  of  beneficent  laws 
of  which,  when  comprehended,  we  can  take  advantage 
for  the  upward  progress  of  the  race  and  for  the 
great  advancement  of  our  own  souls,  just  as  man  has 
constantly  modified  terrestrial  physical  evolution,  by 
intelligent  use  of  the  physical  laws  of  the  universe. 


It  will  be  well  right  here  to  permanently  disclaim 
the  idea  that  because  man  lives  within  a  kingdom 


24:  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

of  law  he  is,  morally.,  merely  the  mechanical  autom- 
aton of  cause  and  effect,  which  some  scientists  of 
much  learning  would  make  him.  Neither  determin- 
ism nor  materialism  has  place  in  the  higher  concep- 
tions of  Spiritual  Evolution. 

It  may  be  frankly  admitted  that  "free  will"  may 
still  remain  a  "riddle"  of  rationality,  as  Huxley 
said,  but  a  recent  writer*  has  effectually  demon- 
strated that  neither  Spencer  nor  Haeckel  considered 
all  the  phenomena  of  man's  existence  nor  all  the 
import  of  their  own  logic,  in  deducing  their  deter- 
ministic and  materialistic  conclusions.  This  writer 
also  shows  that  we  would  falsify  every  human  expe- 
rience and  all  concepts  of  justice,  virtue,  bravery, 
honor,  integrity  and  even  truth  itself,  if  we  did  not 
concede  the  power  of  moral  choice  to  the  race  of  man. 

He  also  clearly  demonstrates  that  the  existence  of 
"free  will,"  or  moral  choice  of  actions,  is  no  greater 
a  mystery  of  rationality  and  is  of  the  same  class 
as  the  mystery  of  rationality  inherent  in  the  human 
concept  of  time  and  that  of  space,  which  mysteries 
Spencer  so  clearly  analyzes.  It  takes  but  little  beyond 
the  fact  of  the  existence  of  these  mysteries  which 
human  reason  cannot  solve,  to  convince  one,  who  can 
clearly  see  the  design  of  the  Infinite  One  in  Spiritual 
Evolution,  that  human  thought  and  reason  were  pur- 
posely halted  by  these  impenetrable  barriers,  as  a 
pledge  of  God  that  human  personality  (at  least  of  the 


*W.   H.   Mallock,  "The  Reconstruction   of  Religious 
Belief." 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  25 

morally  fit)  should  survive  physical  death;  but  of  this 
more  hereafter. 


The  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  hanishes  from 
its  conceptions  of  the  true  history  of  the  evolution 
of  man  upon  the  earth,  any  idea  that  the  account  of 
the  Jewish  Bible  of  man's  origin  gives  even  "figura- 
tive" verity.  Science  has  long  denied  even  the  poet- 
ical truth  of  the  story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden. 
To  adopt  the  tale  of  Adam  and  Eve  does  not  con- 
form to  the  true  history  of  man,  which  is  written 
in  unmistakable  monuments  of  evolution,  which  every 
man  who  chooses  may  read  for  himself.  It  does 
not  conform  at  all  to  the  truths  of  evolution  to  believe 
that  the  two  progenitors  of  the  race  were  originally 
created  in  the  present  physical  form  and  spiritually 
perfect  and  then  fell  into  spiritual  degradation,  and 
thus  condemned  the  children  of  men  to  inherited 
displeasure  of  God. 

Science  finds  a  different  "revelation"  of  the  origin 
of  man,  evidenced  in  Nature  in  many  ways,  and, 
while  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  amplify 
the  facts  which  have  very  many  sources  of  verifica- 
tion, it  may  be  well  to  say  that  science  finds  man 
appearing  on  earth  many  thousands  of  years  before 
the  chronology  of  Creation  began,  as  recorded  in  the 
Jewish  Bible,  and  finds  him  as  a  lowly  creature,  ape- 
like, with  only  the  potentialities  of  growth  to  higher 
intellectuality  and  higher  spirituality.  It  also  finds 


26  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

him  then  as  a  descendant  of  a  line  of  animal  life 
which  reaches  back  millions  of  years  to  the  micro- 
scopic single  cell,  the  original  form  of  physical  life 
which  evolved  on  earth. 

It  may  well  be  said  that,  up  out  of  the  star  dust 
from  which  the  earth  was  formed  came  human  life 
by  exceedingly  slow  stages  of  evolution;  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  better  comprehension  of  the  great 
design  under  which  the  race  of  man  exists  shall 
bring  the  belief  that  from  the  Infinite  Intelligence 
Itself  came  the  Spirit  of  man. 


The  iconoclasm  of  the  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolu- 
tion goes  farther  than  denying  the  verity  of  all  other 
religions.  It  says  that  the  truth  of  the  "established 
order  of  the  universe"  rigorously  excludes  the  idea 
that  at  any  time  the  Creator  of  the  Cosmic  Process 
intervened  by  special  act  to  change  for  any  man  or 
any  people  the  operation  of  any  law  of  the  process. 
"Miracles"  are  inconsistent  with  the  higher  concep- 
tions of  the  Infinite  One  brought  into  the  soul  by 
knowledge  of  His  great  plan  for  humanity. 

Also  this  coming  religion  cannot  sanction  the  idea 
that  even  the  prayer  "of  a  broken  and  contrite  heart" 
can  influence  the  purposes  of  the  Maker  of  Laws. 
That  prayer  can  have  no  objective  force  or  effect  may 
be  predicated  as  a  general  proposition,  although  within 
the  realm  of  law  itself  and  within  the  great  proc- 
ess, it  is  not  impossible  that  in  the  yearnings  and 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  27 

spiritualizing  influences  of  what  we  may  call  some 
kinds  of  "prayers,"  there  has  been  a  psychological 
spiritual  force  which  has  tended  to  uplift  the  souls 
of  others  who  heard  not  the  prayers  as  well  as  sub- 
jectively those  who  prayed.  The  law  which  would 
effect  such  uplifting  power  would  be  one  of  broader 
scope,  also,  than  here  outlined. 

Spiritual  Evolution  looks  to  the  discovery  and 
expression  of  beneficent  laws,  which  as  yet  are  dimly 
perceived.  The  new  religion  will  give  to  the  souls 
of  men  the  consolation  and  spiritual  uplift  of  purer 
worship  of  the  Infinite  One  in  all  the  daily  life  of 
the  individual  than  ever  was  dreamed  of  by  man,  and 
the  idea  that  every  man  exists  under  one  great  uplift- 
ing process,  which  God  Himself  will  not  change,  is 
essentially  greatly  higher  than  the  conception  that 
priest  or  layman,  Christian  or  pagan,  by  petition, 
however  disinterested  and  pure,  can  change  the  Will 
of  God  or  affect  the  laws  of  God's  Universe. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  INFINITE  ONE 
''Canst  them  by  searching  find  out  God?" 

WHAT  has  the  Religion  of  the  Spiritual  Evolution 
of  Man  to  say  about  God? 

In  higher  faith  than  any  religion  of  the  past  or 
present  we  assert  that  the  new  religion  finds  the 
Infinite  One  manifested  in  all  that  exists,  and  mani- 
fested in  so  great  a  design  (as  viewed  by  finite  intel- 
ligence) as  to  impel  every  soul  which  comprehends 
the  import  of  this  design,  to  strong  uplifting  worship. 

The  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  is  distinctly 
monotheistic.  Spencer,  whose  philosophy  illumined 
half  a  century  of  human  advancement,  found  in 
the  Cosmic  Process,  in  its  totality,  the  proof  of  "an 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy  from  which  all  things 
proceed,"  but  halting  at,  what  he  deemed,  impassable 
barriers  between  the  Infinite  and  the  finite,  he  would 
not  tolerate  the  idea  that  we  of  finite  intelligence 
could  ascribe  any  "attributes"  to  the  "Inscrutable" 
Power.  Mr.  Mallock,  in  his  remarkable  book,  "The 
Reconstruction  of  Religious  Belief,"  establishes  clearly 
and  scientifically  that  we  are  justified  by  the  philoso- 
phy of  both  Spencer  and  Haeckel  in  finding  pur- 
posive Goodness  in  things  as  they  are,  even  though 

28 


SPIBITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  29 

the  scientific  mind  asserts  another  of  the  "mysteries" 
to  bar  the  conclusion,,  as  a  matter  of  pure  reason. 
The  sooner  students  of  philosophy  recognize  that,  for 
the  purposes  of  life  and  human  advancement,  we 
must  yield  to  universal  human  experience  to  "cut 
the  knots"  of  the  mysteries  of  our  conceptions  of 
time,  space,  the  origin  of  matter  and  of  motion,  moral 
freedom  of  man,  the  existence  of  our  own  personality 
and  of  our  own  consciousness,  the  sooner  will  they 
join  with  us  in  the  great  work  of  race  salvation.  This, 
however,  is  not  a  conflict  between  the  new  religion 
and  science.  It  is  simply  a  reconciliation  of  finite 
rationality  with  things  as  they  are. 


But,  while  the  new  religion  finds  in  the  strictest 
deductions  of  Science  an  Infinite  Power  manifested  in 
all  things,  and  that  this  Power  evidences  the  existence 
of  the  Infinite  One,  or  God,  this  religion  does  not 
permit  man  to  define  God  as  a  person  in  the  sense 
that  human  beings  are  persons.  It  does  not  permit 
any  man  to  say  that  he  is  formed  in  the  image  of 
God.  Man,  as  a  creature,  is  the  product  of  an 
evolution  which  brought  his  organism  up  through 
a  process  which  leaves  some  of  the  apes  as  his  lowlier 
image.  If  you  say  that  the  language  in  Genesis, 
which  asserts  that  "God  said,  'Let  us  make  man  in 
our  image,  after  our  likeness/ "  is  figurative  and 
should  be  applied  only  to  the  soul  or  spirit  of  man, 
who  art  thou  who  asserts  that  the  human  finite 


30  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

soul  images  the  Infinite  One.  We  undoubtedly  have 
through  our  souls  a  link  with  the  Supreme  Being, 
a  link  which  has  great  spiritual  significance,  but 
we  should  be  slow  to  deduce  more  than  that  through 
this  link  we  can  have  rational  hope  of  the  spiritual 
personality,  at  least  of  the  morally  fit,  surviving  phy- 
sical death  and  of  progressing  in  the  spiritual  realm 
beyond  death  towards  the  Infinite  One,  and  perhaps 
eventually  finding  the  higher  rationality  which  will 
solve  the  mysteries  which  now  limit  human  reason. 

In  subsequent  chapters,  in  dealing  with  the  import 
of  Evolution  on  earth  and  the  way  humanity  can 
forward  the  very  purposes  of  the  Infinite  One,  we 
will  be  assisted  in  a  comprehension  of  Him  as  not 
only  "the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy  from  which 
all  things  proceed,"  but  also  as  the  Infinite  Intelli- 
gence working  in  the  evolutionary  process  to  help  men 
on  the  upward  way  to  righteousness  and,  because  His 
purpose  is  in  the  process,  we  must  find  Him  as  imma- 
nent, in  the  higher  sense,  in  all  things.  We  must 
not  consider  Him  as  a  faraway  ruler,  nor  must  we 
think  of  Him  as  simply  starting  the  Cosmic  Process 
and  awaiting  through  untold  ages,  past  and  future, 
for  its  final  consummation,  even  as  far  as  mankind 
is  concerned.  But  from  the  import  of  Spiritual 
Evolution  we  are  fully  entitled  to  believe  that  His 
will  enters  into  our  own  personalities  in  every  ethical 
impulse  and  that  His  glory  shines  not  only  in  a 
universe  of  myriads  of  solar  systems  vastly  greater 
than  our  own,  as  well  as  in  the  minutest  of  existing 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  31 

things,  but,  also,  in  a  higher  sense,  in  every  righteous 
deed  and  most  surely  in  every  effort  humanity  makes 
towards  better  spirituality. 

If  we  wish  to  define  Infinity  it  can  only  be  done  as 
an  outpouring  of  our  souls  towards  the  Infinite  One 
and  not  as  any  demonstration  of  Science,  and  yet, 
when  the  psychical  and  ethical  import  of  Spiritual 
Evolution  is  fairly  comprehended,  we  will  be  entitle^ 
to  believe  as  a  rational  conclusion  that  God  is  a 
Spirit  of  Infinite  Intelligence  and  Infinite  Goodness, 
and  that  He  is  immanent  in  everything  that  exists. 

That  there  is  a  kinship  between  our  spirits  and  the 
Infinite  One,  not  like  the  earthly  kinship  of  father 
and  son,  but  something  immeasurably  higher,  will 
gradually  grow  within  the  consciousness  of  each  one 
who  studies  Spiritual  Evolution. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    DIVINE    PLAN 

MANY  scientific  writers  have  expressed  in  one  form 
or  another  the  conclusion  that  all  evolution  is  proceed- 
ing under  a  predestined  plan.  Huxley  (whose  lumi- 
nous mind  added  greatly  to  the  philosophy  of  evolu- 
tion), in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  turned  his  thoughts 
towards  the  import  of  the  evolutional  development 
of  the  ethical  in  man's  nature  and  in  mankind  as  a 
social  unity.  His  last  published  work,  "Evolution  and 
Ethics,"  is  most  inspiring,  and  while  he  failed  by 
reason  of  death  to  follow  up  the  constructive  ethical 
work  towards  which  his  later  philosophy  led  him,  he 
will  always  be  one  of  the  greatest  who  foreshadowed 
the  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution. 

Reluctant,  because  agnostic  in  his  mental  attitude, 
to  take  a  single  step  of  undemonstrated  belief,  how- 
ever rational  it  might  be,  he  clearly  saw  that  evolution 
evidenced  "Design."  Upon  this  subject,  he  says  : 

"It  is  very  desirable  to  remember  that  evolution 
is  not  an  explanation  of  the  Cosmic  Process,  but 
merely  a  generalized  statement  of  the  method  and 
results  of  that  process.  And,  further,  that  if  there 
is  proof  that  the  Cosmic  .Process  was  set  going  by 
any  agent,  then  that  agent  will  be  the  creator  of  it 
and  of  all  its  products,  although  supernatural  inter- 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  33 

vention  may  remain  strictly  excluded  from  its  further 
course. 

"So  far  as  that  limited  revelation  of  the  nature 
of  things  which  we  call  scientific  knowledge  has  yet 
gone  it  tends3  with  constantly  increasing  emphasis, 
to  the  belief  that,  not  merely  the  world  of  plants 
but  that  of  animals,  not  merely  living  things,  but 
the  whole  fabric  of  the  earth,  not  merely  our  star  and 
its  satellite,  but  the  millions  of  similar  bodies  which 
bear  witness  to  the  order  which  pervades  boundless 
space  and  which  has  endured  through  boundless  time, 
are  all  wording  out  their  predestined  courses  of 
evolution. 

"That  which  endures  is  not  one  or  another  associa- 
tion of  living  form,  but  the  process  of  which  the 
cosmos  is  the  product  and  of  which  these  are  among 
the  transitory  expressions." 

Later  it  will  be  shown  that  Huxley  not  only  per- 
ceived that  all  things  in  the  Universe  were  "working 
out  their  predestined  courses  of  evolution,"  but  he  also 
saw,  as  far  as  man's  spiritual  nature  is  concerned, 
that  the  "Design"  tended  to  advance  mankind  ethic- 
ally. That  he  failed  to  perceive  the  full  import  of  his 
own  convincing  logic  is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 
Spencer's  "established  order  of  the  universe"  being 
attributed  by  him  to  "an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy, 
from  which  all  things  proceed,"  necessarily  means 
that  the  whole  Cosmic  Process  is  developing  and 
unfolding  under  an  Infinite  Design,  or  purpose. 


34  THE  EELIGION  OF  THE 

Mr.  Mallock,  summarizing  his  conclusions  upon  this" 
subject,  says: 

"Science,  then,  in  proportion  as  it  is  completely 
rationalized,  not  merely  permits,  but  actually  com- 
pels the  reason  to  recognize  a  piurposive  mind  as  the 
First  Cause  of  the  universe,  thus  completely  revolu- 
tionizing the  atheistic  or  agnostic  conclusion  to  which 
it  seemed  to  lead,  when  its  implications  were  insuffi- 
ciently realized;  and  it  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the 
profound  change  which  must  gradually  take  place 
where  the  recognition  of  this  fact  becomes  general. 
The  mere  recognition,  however,  of  a  purposive  cosmic 
Mind,  though  it  constitutes  a  rudimentary  theology,  is 
not  itself  a  religion.  In  order  to  become  a  religion 
it  must  be  supplemented  by  the  two  other  beliefs,  that 
the  Cosmic  Mind  is  good,  and  that  man  is  a  free 
agent." 

The  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  claims,  there- 
fore, as  a  fundamental  truth,  that  all  evolution  is 
continuously  unfolding  the  purposes  of  the  Infinite 
One  and  that  mankind  can  properly  seek  in  the  revela- 
tions of  science  respecting  terrestrial  evolution  the 
import  of  the  Divine  Plan  upon  Man's  destiny. 


THE  LAW  OF  THE  UPWARD  WAY 

We  have  now  reached  the  most  vital,  the  most 
inspiring  conclusion  of  science  in  respect  to  all  evo- 
lution. Primarily,  this  conclusion  would  seem  to  be 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  35 

related  only  to  terrestrial  evolution;  but,  as  we  pon- 
der its  import,  there  unfolds  in  the  soul  a  conviction 
that  in  this  conclusion  we  have  a  revelation  of  the 
Infinite  One  which  transforms  the  concept  of  the  Cos- 
mic Process  from  that  of  a  process  affecting  mostly 
the  material  things  of  the  universe  into  a  wonderful 
spiritual  process  which  far  transcends  in  value  to 
humanity  all  else  within  the  domain  of  consciousness  f 
and  which  we  may  fairly  conclude,,  pervades  the  uni- 
verse and  operates  on  all  intelligent  creatures  in  all 
the  worlds  of  space. 

In  order  to  comprehend  what  the  process  means  to 
man,  we  would  better  revert  momentarily  to  what 
science  has  demonstrated  respecting  the  life  history 
of  the  human  race.  The  original  men  and  women 
were  necessarily  animal  like  and  of  a  low  order  of 
intelligence.  So  we  start  in  our  contemplation  of  the 
result  of  the  evolution  of  mankind  with  the  original 
progenitors  of  all  humanity  appearing  far  down,  we 
may  say,  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  pathway  which 
leads  upward  towards  the  ideal. 

Struggling  hard  for  a  precarious  existence,  un- 
housed and  unclothed,  save  in  nature's  hairiness, 
weaponless  and  separate  from  his  kind  except  for  his 
mate  and  their  children  during  infancy,  the  original 
progenitor  of  our  race  fought  his  battles  for  posterity 
with  thoughts  only  of  food,  shelter  and  safety.  In 
him  there  could  have  been  no  conscious  spirituality 
and  intellectuality  of  only  a  rudimentary  nature. 
And  yet,  of  necessity,  we  must  conclude  that  there 


36  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

was  in  him  the  potentiality  of  the  entire  intellectual 
and  ethical  or  spiritual  history  of  mankind.  Every- 
thing whatsoever  pertaining  to  man  is  the  product  of 
the  evolutional  process  in  its  entirety  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  unfolding  of  the  process  has  shown 
the  Will  of  God.  What,  then,  is  the  import  of  the 
Divine  Plan  for  mankind  in  its  totality? 

The  deduction  is  sure  and  wholly  scientific. 
Within  the  Plan  man  has  progressed  or  retrograded, 
he  has  advanced  spiritually  or  has  degenerated,  and, 
while  always  his  own  volition  has  marked  his  path- 
way, yet  the  evolutional  forces  moving  upon  his  spirit 
have  always  had  a  potency  upon  the  life  of  the  entire 
race  of  mankind,  which  would  not  permit  of  per- 
manent spiritual  degeneration  or  of  irretrievable 
vebarbarization. 

Science  recognizes,  as  a  matter  of  clearest  dem- 
onstration, that  man  has  always  been  climbing  an 
upward  pathway  intellectually  and  morally  and,  while 
there  have  been  centuries  of  slipping  backwards  and 
of  ethical  darkness,  yet  in  the  larger  view  there  has 
been  no  permanent  check  in  the  struggle  of  humanity 
to  climb  upward  in  spiritual  life  towards  the  ideal. 
When  we  realize  that  not  only  the  ape-like  man,  but 
every  man,  in  his  body,  mind  and  soul,  is  the  creature 
of  the  process,  working  out  his  problems  of  life 
within  the  Design  of  the  Infinite  One,  we  approach 
the  real  meaning  of  the  evolution  of  man.  Borrowing 
from  Huxley,  we  may  say  that,  within  the  general 
Cosmic  Process,  there  clearly  appears  .a  wonderful 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  37 

Ethical  Process,  which  has  ever  worked  upon  the 
souls  of  men,  and  it  is  not  unscientific  to  assert  that 
within  this  Ethical  Process  are  evidenced  spiritual- 
izing forces  which  have  moved  upon  the  spirits  of 
men  with  a  potency  which  has  eventually  uplifted 
the  race. 

Without  attempting  to  array  the  facts  in  any  detail, 
it  is  enough  to  call  attention  to  the  ultimate  truth 
that  the  Ethical  Process  through  the  slow  procession 
of  the  ages  has  changed  the  ape-like  man  into  a 
Confucius,  a  Buddha,  a  Zoroaster,  an  Aristotle,  a 
Plato,  a  Christ,  a  Marcus  Aurelius,  a  Voltaire,  a 
Washington,  a  Lincoln,  a  John  Fiske,  a  Darwin,  a 
Herbert  Spencer  and  a  Huxley,  or,  if  you  please,  into 
the  highest  evolved  spiritual  types  of  men,  whoever 
they  may  be,  and,  likewise,  has  transformed  the  ani- 
mal-like mate  of  the  cave-dweller  into  the  pure-souled 
wife  and  mother  of  our  generation,  who  is  ever  seek- 
ing higher  spirituality. 


Can  we  state  the  import  of  the  Ethical  Process 
(of  Spiritual  Evolution)  as  a  great  fundamental 
principle  underlying  and  making  the  firm  founda- 
tion of  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  ?  Can  we 
state  the  Law  of  the  Upward  Way  ?  At  least,  tenta- 
tively, it  may  be  formulated  as  follows: 

BY  PKEORDAINED  DESIGN  OF  THE  INFI- 
NITE ONE,  MAN,  AS  THE  GRADUALLY 


38  THE  EELIGION  OF  THE 

EVOLVED  HIGHEST  CREATURE  OP  TERRES- 
TRIAL ORGANIC  EVOLUTION,  FROM  THE 
FARAWAY  TIME  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  PRO- 
GENITORS OF  THE  RACE,  HAS  ALWAYS  AD- 
VANCED INTELLECTUALLY  AND  ETHIC- 
ALLY OR  SPIRITUALLY  UNDER  A  PERSIS- 
TENT SPIRITUAL  PROCESS  WHICH,  WHILE 
NOT  DEPRIVING  HIM  OF  HIS  FREE  WILL, 
HAS  EVER  IMPELLED  HIM  UPWARD  AWAY 
FROM  ANIMALISM,  FROM  IGNORANCE  AND 
FROM  VICE,  AND  TOWARDS  HIGHER  INTEL- 
LECTUALITY AND  HIGHER  SPIRITUALITY. 

BY  THE  SAME  PREORDAINED  PLAN  THE 
UPLIFTING  FORCES  EVIDENCED  IN  THE 
SPIRITUAL  PROCESS  INEVITABLY  PREPON- 
DERATE IN  ULTIMATE  RACIAL  UPLIFTING 
POWER  OVER  THE  NECESSARILY  OPPOSED 
FORCES  WHICH  TEND  TOWARDS  RACIAL 
REVERSION  TO  ANIMALISM  RETROGRES- 
SION AND  DEGRADATION. 

ALSO  UNDER  THE  DIVINE  PLAN  THIS 
SAME  PREPONDERATING  SPIRITUAL  PROC- 
ESS WILL  CONTINUE  TO  FURTHER  UPLIFT 
HUMANITY  THROUGH  ALL  THE  FUTURE  OF 
THE  RACE  TO  THE  END  THAT  NOT  ONLY 
INDIVIDUALS  BUT  THE  WHOLE  RACE  WILL 
BECOME  SPIRITUALLY  DEVELOPED  AND 
PERFECTED  TO  AN  EXTENT  NOT  NOW  DIS- 
CERNIBLE BUT,  BEYOND  QUESTION,  FAR 
ABOVE  THE  PRESENT  STAGE  OF  ADVANCE- 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  39 

MENT  AND  POSSIBLY  APPKOACHING  THE 
IDEAL. 


The  great  principle  just  stated  has  received  many 
sanctions  from  scientists.  It  is  so  tremendously  vital 
and  so  interwoven  with  the  history  and  destiny  of 
man  that  philosophers  of  evolution  cannot  generalize 
the  import  of  man's  origin  and  his  intellectual  and 
ethical  progress  without  recognizing,  more  or  less 
clearly,  this  Law  of  the  Upward  Way.  But  we 
have  in  this  supreme  principle  a  religious  import 
which  must  require  us  to  revalue  all  things  which 
lie  within  consciousness. 

Wonderful,  indeed,  is  the  evolution  of  the  inor- 
ganic portion  of  our  world,  perhaps  more  wonderful, 
the  process  controlling  organic  life,  but  now  we  must 
regard  the  evolution  of  inorganic  matter  and  of  living 
things  as  truly  subordinate.  The  vital  and  controlling 
fact  of  terrestrial  evolution  is  that  the  highest  form 
of  growth  amongst  the  creatures  of  earth  ts  the  spir- 
itual life  of  man  and  the  ultimately  triumphant  forces 
operating  upon  humanity  are  the  unmaterial  forces 
which  make  for  righteousness. 

When  once  our  souls  have  been  lifted  up  to  the 
comprehension  of  this,  the  greatest  of  truths,  we 
can  see  in  all  reverence  that  through  the  evolutional 
forces  God  has  ever  moved  and  ever  will  move  upon 
the  spirits  of  men,  seeking  to  impel  them  towards 
righteousness,  while  always  giving  the  individual  the 


40  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

power,  through  his  freedom  of  choice  of  actions, 
either  to  climb  upward  spiritually  or  to  slip  backwards 
towards  moral  degradation. 

It  is  His  Will  that  the  race  of  mankind  must 
eventually  climb  the  upward  way  of  spirituality,  but 
the  individual,  through  the  gift  of  moral  freedom, 
has  cast  upon  him  the  power  of  either  advancing  to 
better  spirituality  himself  and  of  assisting  the  race 
to  advance  or  of  degenerating  in  his  own  soul  and 
of  hindering  the  advance  of  his  fellow-men. 

The  Law  of  the  Upward  Way  thus  becomes  doubly 
the  foundation  of  the  Religion  of  the  Spiritual  Evo- 
lution of  Man.  It  is  a  revelation  of  science  which 
discloses  the  Infinite  One  as  the  Power  which  makes 
for  Righteousness  and  it  also  reveals  the  spiritual  duty 
of  every  man  and  woman  to  consciously  assist  in 
uplifting  the  race. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

itifi 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RELIGION  OF  SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION — THE  RELIG- 
ION OF  THE  FUTURE 

THE  world  is  ready  for  the  Religion  of  Science,  the 
Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution.  All  the  other  relig- 
ions of  today  and  all  the  religions  of  the  past  have  a 
fading  power  over  the  souls  of  the  now  very  great 
number  of  men  and  women  who  believe  that  religion 
and  science  must  exist  in  harmonious  unity. 
No  other  religion  can  claim  any  rational  unity  with 
the  revelations  of  science.  Science  has  widened  con- 
ceptions of  the  universe  from  the  childlike  views 
of  all  other  religions  into  a  Cosmos  so  vast  that  our 
earth  is  but  a  grain  of  sand  on  the  sea  shore,  in  com- 
parison with  the  immensity  of  the  myriads  of  suns 
which  have  been  photographed ;  and  ever  the  widening 
marvels  of  infinite  space  overwhelm  the  narrowness 
of  the  teachings  of  all  other  religions.  So,  too,  the 
recognition  of  law,  working  in  all  the  processes  of  evo- 
lution, cuts  away  the  crude  conceptions  which  per- 
meate all  other  religions  of  the  way  the  Infinite  One 
reveals  Himself  and  His  purposes  towards  mankind. 

Spencer  says:     "Religion,  everywhere  present  as 

a  weft  running  through  the  warp  of  human  history, 

expresses  some  eternal  fact;  while  it  is  always  a  truism 

to  say  of  science  that  it  is  an  organized  mass  of  facts, 

41 


42  THE  BELIGION  OF  THE 

ever  growing  and  ever  being  more  completely  purified 
from  errors.  And,  if  both  have  bases  in  the  reality 
of  things,  then  between  them  there  must  be  a  fun- 
damental  harmony/' 

As  the  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  is  based 
upon  all  the  realities,  as  disclosed  by  science,  and  all 
which  can  hereafter  be  disclosed,  it  is  the  one  religion 
which  all  men,  who  are  educated  to  an  understanding 
of  Cosmic  Evolution,  including  the  Ethical  Process, 
can  accept,  and  no  advance  of  human  knowledge  can 
disturb  the  harmony  between  this  Eeligion  of  the 
Future  and  Science,  because  all  Truth  belongs  within 
the  purview  of  the  teachings  of  this  Eeligion  and  it 
denies  no  Truth. 


In  the  opening  chapters  the  author  purposely  speci- 
fied many  doctrines  of  other  religions,  including 
Christianity,  which  the  Religion  of  the  Spiritual  Evo- 
lution of  Man  cannot  admit  as  founded  in  the  realms 
of  truth,  and  it  would  seem  that  the  sooner  those 
who  join  in  the  organization  of  the  Religion  of  the 
Future  shall  emphasize  in  their  work  and  teachings 
that  there  is  an  absolute  line  of  demarcation  between 
Christianity  as  a  religion  and  the  Religion  of  Science, 
the  sooner  will  the  great  majority  of  men  and  women 
of  intelligence,  who  have  ethical  impulses,  join  in  the 
wonderful  constructive  work  now  lying  directly  before 
us.  Whatever  there  be  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  which 
belongs  within  the  scope  of  our  new  religion,  let  us 
take  it  and  use  it  and  thus  also  of  Buddha  and 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  43 

Plato  and  Voltaire  and  Thomas  Paine,  and  all  others 
who  sought  the  truth  and  wished  to  uplift  humanity. 


The  broad  underlying  principles  of  the  Religion 
of  Spiritual  Evolution  would  seem  to  be  these : 

First — All  humanity  of  every  race  and  color  has 
been  evolved  and  is  evolving  under  the  same  process 
affected  by  the  same  laws  and  this  process  constitutes 
the  Divine  Plan,  the  Will  of  the  Infinite  One, 
respecting  mankind. 

Second — This  process  ties  all  humanity  together  in 
a  brotherhood  and  sisterhood,  which,  of  necessity,  de- 
volves upon  the  farthest  evolved  a  great  struggle  for 
the  moral,  intellectual  and  physical  salvation  of  the 
entire  race  of  human  beings,  and  thus  the  principle 
object  of  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  must  be, 
in  great  love  for  our  fellow-men,  to. consciously  assist 
in  carrying  out  the  Divine  Plan  that  the  race  shall 
be  advanced  to  higher  spirituality. 

Third — That  the  worship  of  the  Infinite  One  shall 
be  the  spiritual  outpouring  of  finitely  intelligent  souls 
to  the  God  of  the  Universe,  in  Whom  dwells  the 
Infinite  Good,  the  Infinite  Intelligence  and  the  Infi- 
nite Power,  Who  controls  the  Cosmos  and  makes  for 
righteousness  in  the  spirits  of  men,  and  Who  is  imma- 
nent everywhere  in  the  Cosmos  and  in  the  process 
of  the  Cosmos.  In  this  worship  we  will  find  an  in- 
finite love  of  God  for  man  and  a  love  of  man  for 
God  far  above  the  conception  of  the  love  of  a  father 
for  a  son  or  of  a  son  for  a  father. 


44  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

Fourth — That  neither  superstition,  nor  faith  in 
alleged  verbal  revelations,  nor  faith  in  revelation  in 
visions,  nor  miracles,  nor  alleged  messages  from  the 
Infinite  One  on  plates  of  stone  or  of  gold,  nor  belief 
that  any  man  became  the  mouthpiece  of  God,  nor 
that  any  people  ever  became  "the  chosen  people  of 
God"  shall  be  tolerated. 

Fifth — That  scientific  truth  must  always  be  sought 
and  when  new  truth  has  been  unfolded  in  the  advance 
of  humanity  it  shall  become  a  part  of  all  ascertained 
truth  to  be  accepted  by  all  those  who  belong  to  the 
organized  body  of  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution. 

Sixth — That  in  the  advance  of  scientific  proof,  such 
faith  in  a  future  life  for  the  souls  of  men  as  can 
be  rationally  predicated  upon  the  Spiritual  Evolution 
of  man  on  earth  shall  be  sought  for,  and  accepted. 

Seventh — That,  as  the  lesson  of  all  political,  eco- 
nomic and  sociological  evolution  as  well  as  spiritual 
evolution  points  to  the  great  constructive  power  of 
complete  organization  and  united  effort,  the  individ- 
ual Spiritual  Evolutionist,  without  surrender  of  his 
Spiritual  individuality  must  always  endeavor  to  co- 
operate in  institutional  unity  with  his  co-religionists. 

Finally — In  summation, — that  race  salvation  shall 
ever  be  the  supreme  object  of  the  earthly  efforts  of 
those  who  accept  this  religion  and  through  such  ef- 
forts and  the  rational  worship  of  the  Infinite  One, 
the  individual  shall  find  the  only  salvation  for  his 
soul  worthy  of  spiritual  endeavor,  namely,  the  spirit- 
ual growth  of  his  soul  on  earth  and  the  right  to 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  45 

have  his  personality  survive  physical  death,  and  there- 
after to  progress  spiritually  towards  God.  And  that 
the  race  of  men  through  the  untold  centuries  of  man's 
future  upon  earth  shall  ever  climb  the  Upward  Way 
towards  the  Spiritually  ideal  so  that  when  the  final 
evolutional  pinnacle  of  earthly  physical  evolution 
shall  be  reached  the  race  shall  be  so  perfected  that  the 
downward  swing  towards  a  dying  physical  world  shall 
find  man  intellectually  and  spiritually  able  to  pre- 
vent any  backward  spiritual  evolution,  away  from 
the  high  estate  then  attained  downward  towards  deg- 
radation or  rebarbarization. 


PART  II 

THE 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  RELIGION 
OF  SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  I 

# 

THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNITED  EFFORT 

DIRECTLY  in  front  of  all  of  the  farthest  evolved, 
who  shall  see  that  the  Law  of  the  Upward  Way  is 
true,  lies  the  great  duty  of  the  primal  organization 
of  The  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution. 

This  book  would  fail  greatly  in  its  purpose  should 
it  not  convince  the  large  majority  of  the  ethically 
inclined,  advanced  thinkers  of  humanity,  that  in  com- 
mon effort  lies  the  co-ordination  of  ourselves  with 
the  purposes  of  the  In-finite  One. 

It  must  be  too  plain  for  reasonable  controversy 
that  race  salvation  must  come  through  the  intelli- 
gent united  effort  of  that  portion  of  humanity  which 
is  willing  to  accept  the  underlying  principles  of  the 
Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  and,  in  strong  con- 
structive institutional  unison,  consciously  work  out 
man's  part  in  uplifting  the  race  in  high  harmony 
with  the  Divine  Plan. 

Huxley  saw  that  organization  "in  common  effort" 
was  the  way  to  find  race  salvation. 

In  Evolution  and  Ethics  he  says:  "Moreover  the 
Cosmic  nature  [animalism]  born  with  us  and  to  a 
large  extent  necessary  for  our  maintenance,  is  the 
outcome  of  millions  of  years  of  severe  training  and  it 
would  be  folly  to  imagine  that  a  few  centuries  will  suf- 
49 


50  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

fice  to  subdue  its  masterfulness  to  purely  ethical 
ends.  Ethical  nature  may  count  upon  having  to 
reckon  with  a  powerful  enemy  as  long  as  the  world 
lasts. 

"But  on  the  other  hand,  I  see  no  limit  to  the  extent 
which  intelligence  and  will,  guided  by  sound  princi- 
ples of  investigation  and  ORGANIZED  IN  COM- 
MON EFFORT,  may  modify  the  conditions  of  exist- 
ence for  a  period  longer  than  now  covered  by  history. 
And  much  may  be  done  to  change  the  nature  of  man 
himself. 

"The  intelligence  which  has  converted  the  brother 
of  the  wolf  into  the  faithful  guardian  of  the  flock 
ought  to  be  able  to  do  something  towards  crushing 
the  instincts  of  savagery  in  civilized  men!' 

It  is  inconceivable  that  any  student  of  sociology 
as  a  science  can  fail  to  conclude  that  the  only  ef- 
fective way  to  spiritually  transform  mankind  is  by 
complete  strong  organization  of  those  who  desire  to 
advance  spiritually  and  to  help  all  humanity  to  so 
advance. 


Another  potent  argument  for  prompt  and  effective 
organization  lies  in  the  very  nature  of  the  work  to 
be  done. 

First  of  all,  there  must  be  essential  harmony  in 
the  creedless  teachings  of  those  who  see  the  import 
of  the  Spiritual  Evolution  of  man,  and  such  har- 
mony can  only  grow  up  through  institutional  unison 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  51 

of  purpose  and  effort  gained  by  organized  association 
with  each  other. 

Second — Only  through  broad  persistent  education 
in  the  underlying  principles  of  all  evolution,  and  par- 
ticularly Spiritual  Evolution,  can  we  expect  to  up- 
lift our  brothers  and  our  sisters  of  the  race  to  a 
comprehension  of  the  Divine  Plan  for  mankind,  and, 
without  the  highest  organization  ever  attempted  in 
racial  evolution,  we  cannot  hope  to  successfully  ac- 
complish the  great  work  of  freeing  the  souls  of  men 
from  the  shackles  of  superstitution,  irrational  faith, 
creed-bound  ignorance  and  animalistic  living. 

Third — Spiritual  Evolution  regards  mankind  as  a 
unit  within  the  uplifting  plan  of  the  Infinite  One 
and  working  solely  as  individuals  we  will  surely  fail 
to  consciously  assist  the  purposes  of  God  in  any  ef- 
fective way. 

Fourth — The  practical  application  of  the  Eeligion 
of  Spiritual  Evolution  to  the  daily  life  of  the  race 
demands  essential  agreement  in  defining  the  indi- 
vidual and  sociological  acts  of  men  which  must  be 
approbated  and  encouraged  and  those  which  must  be 
reprobated  and  destroyed.  Only  by  fearless,  vigor- 
ous united  effort  can  we  hope  to  take  our  religion  into 
every  field  of  human  endeavor  and  human  conduct. 


CHAPTEK  II 

PRIMARY  ORGANIZATION 

How  can  we  best  organize  to  satisfy  the  high 
Spiritual  purposes  of  the  new  religion  ? 

Only  by  way  of  suggestion  of  what  he  believes  to 
be  the  inherent  requirements  of  the  upward  struggle 
for  race  salvation  does  the  author  offer  tentatively 
the  ideas  unfolded  in  this  chapter. 

Feeling  that  there  are  very  many  men  and  women 
now  educated  to  a  point  where  they  have  become  dis- 
satisfied to  join  in  the  sectarian  efforts  of  any  or- 
ganized religion  and  that  these  men  and  women  have 
been  longing,  as  has  the  author,  for  the  opportunity 
to  unite  in  some  strong,  intelligent,  world-wide  eth- 
ical effort  for  the  promotion  of  higher  Spirituality  in 
mankind,  the  author  believes  that  all  such  men  and 
women  need  only  the  constructive  suggestion  to  im- 
pel them  to  start  definite  organization  of  the  Religion 
of  Spiritual  Evolution.  If  this  book  shall  induce  the 
coming  together  of  all  such  persons  in  efforts  to  or- 
ganize as  broadly  as  man's  necessities  and  race  up- 
lifting require,  then  one,  who  feels  himself  unworthy 
of  inspiring  such  a  result,  will  find  a  long  existing 
desire  satisfied. 

52 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  53 

These  ideas  respecting  organization  have  appealed 
to  the  author  as  valid,  but  are  but  crudely  formulated. 
In  the  first  place,  as  President  Eliot  states,  "The  re- 
ligion of  the  future  will  not  be  based  on  authority 
either  spiritual  or  temporal"  The  purpose  of  the 
first  part  of  this  work  if  correctly  interpreted  will 
have  shown  that  scientific  knowledge  in  its  broadest 
and  highest  sense  must  inevitably  constitute  the  only 
authority  of  the  new  religion.  The  Infinite  One  never 
on  earth  gave  power  or  inspiration  to  voice  His  com- 
mands or  to  exercise  any  of  His  decrees  to  disciple,  or 
pope,  or  priest.  There  has  never  been  an  authorita- 
tive church  of  God  or  an  authoritative  book  of  God. 
Bibles  of  Buddhism,  or  of  the  Parsees,  or  of  the  He- 
brews, or  of  Christianity,  or  of  Mohammedanism,  or 
of  Mormonism  equally  fade  into  the  realm  of  myth- 
ology, recorded  traditions,  folklore,  national  or  racial 
history,  national  poetry,  and  national  or  sectarian  fic- 
tion commingled  with  assumed  revelations  of  the 
Infinite  One  and  assumed  conduct  of  God,  which  the 
Religion  of  Science  cannot  accept  as  authoritative  for 
many  reasons,  including  the  actual  history  of  the  Spir- 
itual Evolution  of  man.  Therefore  it  would  seem  that 
in  the  primal  organization  of  the  new  religion  ive 
must  dearly  provide  that  no  -priest-like  powers  shall 
be  sanctioned  in  any  man. 

Yet  we  must  have  ministers  who,  in  the  generic 
sense  of  the  word,  will  be  "servants"  to  preside  on  the 
platforms  of  our  temples  and  to  perform  other  func- 
tions of  ministers.  They  will  be  teachers  who  will 


54  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

not  only  seek  to  educate  their  congregations  and  them- 
selves in  the  wide  realm  of  scientific  truth,  but  will 
direct  the  worship  of  the  Infinite  One  as  planned  by 
each  congregation  and  in  accordance  with  all  ascer- 
tained truth  and  with  such  rational  faith  as  follows 
truth.  They  will  not  only  seek  to  teach  truth,  but 
they  will  fearlessly  stand,  together  with  their  congre- 
gations, in  the  communities  of  men  applying  to  every 
institution  of  earth,  whether  it  be  governmental,  edu- 
cational, religious,  charitable,  sociological,  economic, 
or  whatever  its  nature,  the  supreme  test — as  organized, 
does  it  further  the  spiritual  uplifting  of  mankind — 
and  if  the  verdict  be  that  it  does  not  they  must  of 
necessity  discuss  the  question, — how  shall  it  be 
changed?  Other  activities  of  these  servants  of  the 
new  Eeligion  will  appear  by  suggestion  throughout 
the  entire  book. 

Second — The  universality  of  the  Religion  of  Spir- 
itual Evolution  should  be  so  clearly  fixed  in  the 
minds  of  its  adherents  that  they  will  ever  under- 
stand that  not  only  the  individual  conduct  of  every 
human  being  is  involved  within  its  scope,  but  every 
institutional  activity  of  every  race  of  men,  and  of 
every  nation  must  be  reckoned  with  as  affecting  the 
Spiritual  Evolution  of  the  race.  Later  we  will  see 
what  standards  of  conduct  are  required  of  men  and 
women  and  of  institutions  of  this  generation  in  or- 
der to  make  them  really  worthy  of  being  ranked 
among  the  highest  yet  evolved  under  the  Divine 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  55 

Plan.  But  at  present  we  seek  suggestions  respect- 
ing primal  organization. 

Owing  to  its  universality  the  new  religion  will 
gradually  create  new  institutions  for  race  advance- 
ment in  well  considered  constructive  efforts.  That 
many  experiments  may  prove  ineffective  and  futile 
must  not  deter.  Sociologically  humanity  has  tried 
many  institutional  experiments  and  yet  is  largely  in- 
effective for  race  advancement  in  many  of  those  now 
controlling  most  human  beings. 

Any  general  organization  of  the  new  religion 
requires  some  plan  whereby  we  can  go  ahead  sanely, 
sensibly  and  strongly  taking  human  society  as  it 
now  exists  and  first  learning  how  it  can  be  changed 
to  further  God's  purpose  of  uplifting  mankind;  we 
must  then  fearlessly,  in  strong  love  for  our  fellow 
man,  educate  the  great  majority  to  see  that  "the 
brotherhood  and  sisterhood"  of  humanity  requires 
certain  new  institutions  to  replace  certain  old  ones. 
We  must  convince  and  then  construct.  One  who  com- 
prehends the  Law  of  the  Upward  Way  must  see  that 
ultimately  all  society  must  be  reorganized  for  race 
salvation.  It  would  be  a  strange  soul  that  would 
say  that,  as  now  organized,  society  requires  no  changes 
to  bring  the  race  higher  and  constantly  higher  in 
brotherly  love  and  in  strong  unison  with  God's  Plan. 
And  if  changes  are  necessary  one  of  the  ever  present  du- 
ties of  the  new  religion  requires  persistent  effort  to 
be  exerted  to  secure  such  changes.  Our  organization 
must  cover  this  broad  field. 


56  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

Third — In  our  effort  to  uplift  humanity  we  must 
use  every  law  of  the  spiritual  process  which  we  can 
discern  as  within  our  reach.  It  is  not  within  the 
scope  of  this  book  to  attempt  to  define  the  subordi- 
nate laws  operating  within  the  Ethical  Process  and 
which  can  be  intelligently  used  in  the  new  religion 
to  further  the  ascent  of  humanity  upon  the  Upward 
Way.  Spencer  as  a  matter  of  philosophy  has  ana- 
lyzed some  of  these  laws,  although,  because  he  saw 
not  the  full  ethical  import  of  the  process  affecting 
humanity,  he  failed  to  apply  these  laws  to  their  high- 
est purposes. 

It  will  be  a  duty  in  our  new  religion  to  provide 
institutions  wherein  all  ascertained  laws  affecting 
the  spiritual  growth  of  men  shall  be  thoroughly  and 
scientifically  studied  and  to  define  the  ways  to  in- 
telligently use  these  laws  for  race  advancement  will 
be  the  paramount  object  of  these  institutions.  Man 
has  used  the  physical  laws  of  the  universe  in  a  myriad 
of  ways  for  his  physical  safety,  convenience  and  com- 
fort. The  laws  relating  to  the  selection  and  best 
propagation  of  plants  and  trees  have  given  us  through 
man's  intelligent  choice  our  grains,  our  flowers  and 
our  fruit.  The  laws  relating  to  mechanics  have  given 
us  by  man's  intelligent  choice  the  myriad  of  mod- 
ern mechanically  operated  industries  and  utilities 
which  pervade  civilization.  The  laws  relating  to 
chemical  and  physical  changes  of  matter  have  been 
availed  of  through  man's  intelligence  not  only  to  aid 
civilization  in  many  ways,  but  to  demonstrate  the 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  57 

kinship  of  the  innumerable  suns  of  the  Cosmos.  It 
surely  must  be  true  that  now  we  approach  the  time 
when  man's  intelligence  guided  by  high  spiritual 
purpose  and  desire  will  seek  out  every  sociological 
and  ethical  law  and  through  full  comprehension  of 
the  power  for  righteousness  evidenced  in  these  laws 
will  consciously  use  them  to  constantly  modify  for 
the  better  all  conditions  surrounding  men  both  mor- 
ally and  socially. 


Fourth — It  must  be  apparent  that  if  the  Law  of 
the  Upward  Way  could  have  full  sway  over  human- 
ity, unimpeded  by  man's  choice  of  animalism,  deg- 
radation, and  of  institutions  which  make  against  the 
advance  of  humanity,  each  succeeding  generation 
would  become  better  and  stronger  spiritually  than 
the  preceding  one.  The  upward  climb  towards  racial 
righteousness  has  no  such  constantly  progressing  his- 
tory and  none  can  be  hoped  for.  The  struggle  to 
gain  the  heights,  in  the  past  has  shown  many  a  slip 
backwards,  but  the  Spiritual  Process  necessarily  im- 
plies tliat  the  child  ought  to  advance  Spiritually  be- 
yond the  father.  How  often  in  family  history  the 
reverse  is  true  is  everywhere  pitifully  manifest,  but 
the  duty  of  parents,  and  of  the  religion  of  the  future 
itself  requires  that  the  opportunity  for  a  child  to 
learn  the  higher  way  should  be  given  through  every 
possible  activity  of  those  who  perceive  that  mankind 
is  and  has  been  slowly  struggling  upward  spiritually. 


58  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

For  generations,  perhaps  centuries,  the  teaching 
of  the  child  the  higher  scientific  truth,  the  great 
import  of  the  Spiritual  Process  and  all  that  follows, 
must  be  done  outside  of  the  governmental  schools. 
How  it  shall  be  done  best;  what  institutions  created 
for  it  and  how  they  shall  be  administered  comes  within 
the  consideration  of  the  organization  of  the  new  re- 
ligion. Whatever  institutions  the  religion  finds 
amongst  those  adopted  by  any  other  religion  which 
can  be  modified  and  used  by  it,  belong  to  it  as  a 
heritage  of  the  Ethical  Process.  The  best  which  the 
process  has  evolved  can  be  made  the  steps  towards 
the  "better"  of  the  new  religion. 

All  days  must  be  profoundly  days  of  worship  in 
the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution,  but  undoubtedly 
for  a  long  time  Sunday,  being  the  accepted  day  of 
rest  from  labor,  will  be  the  day  of  special  gather- 
ing together  in  its  temples  of  all  who  profess  the 
religion.  So  Sunday  Schools  for  the  instruction  of 
both  children  and  adults  will  be  a  necessity  of  pri- 
mary organization.  If  organized  worthily  these 
schools  can  be  made  wonderfully  vibrant  in  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Infinite  One  and  in  educating  the  whole 
people  who  will  attend  these  schools  to  the  truth  of 
the  religion  and  to  their  duties  to  consciously  assist 
God  in  His  plan  for  humanity,  by  better  living  and 
stronger  helpfulness  to  their  fellow  men.  One  can 
see  dimly  that  not  only  on  Sunday  but  in  the  week- 
day evenings  there  will  be  a  field  for  rationally  edu- 
cating ourselves,  and  our  fellow  men  and  women,  and 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  59 

our  children,  and  theirs  in  all  the  expanding  knowl- 
edge belonging  to  this  religion. 


Fifth — The  encouragement  and  creation  of  fre- 
quent, clean,  wholesome,  interesting  and  instructive 
amusements  for  old  and  young  must  be  considered 
in  organization.  The  temples  of  the  Infinite  One 
must  be  temples  not  only  for  Worship  and  instruc- 
tion, but  the  germinating  places  for  making  the  daily 
life  of  the  individual  members  of  the  religion,  morally 
clean,  properly  joyous,  and  full  of  desirable  activi- 
ties. The  institutions  of  degradation  must  find  an 
overwhelming  competitor  in  our  institutions. 

It  is  plain  that  the  gradual  lessening  of  the  hours 
of  toil  amongst  those  who  manually  labor  has  cre- 
ated a  new  demand  for  filling  the  increased  waking 
hours  of  leisure  with  desirable  activities,  and  the 
moving  picture  shows  and  theaters  are  in  part  sup- 
plying the  necessity,  oftentimes  in  a  way  which  is  not 
remotely  uplifting.  As  the  new  religion  necessarily 
enters  into  every  field  of  human  action,  there  lies 
before  all  its  adherents,  including  all  those  belong- 
ing to  it  who  labor  for  sustenance,  an  absorbingly 
interesting,  as  well  as  a  stupendous,  task  to  ration- 
alize and  spiritualize  not  only  the  leisure  hours,  but 
the  hours  of  labor  of  those  who  manually  toil,  and 
equally  true  and  equally  stupendous  is  the  task  of 
performing  the  same  duty  in  respect  to  those  who 
are  rich  and  those  who  do  brain  work. 


60  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

Here  the  author  wishes  to  say  that  humanity  may 
reasonably  expect,  when  a  large  number  of  its  mem- 
bers has  learned  the  Divine  Plan  and  are  seeking  in 
spiritual  endeavor  to  uplift  their  fellow  men,  that 
there  will  be  a  constantly  increasing  readjustment 
of  the  conditions  of  human  toil,  and  of  the  general 
benefits  and  advantages  accruing  to  the  individual. 
We  must  work  toward  the  ideal,  and  a  very  crude 
conception  of  the  ideal  calls  for  adjustments  of  con- 
ditions which  now  permit  some  of  our  fellow  men 
to  take  inequitable  benefits  to  themselves  while  others 
suffer  because  of  it. 

If  this  means  a  higher  socialism, — with  the  Infinite 
One  in  harmony, — who  will  dare  to  advise  against 
working  toward  it. 


Sixth — These  tentative  suggestions  will  be  per- 
ceived to  be  merely  stimulative  to  constructive  activ- 
ity of  the  consciences  of  those  who  see  the  necessity 
for  organization.  In  America  we  have  a  general 
Ethical  Society  of  instructive  power;  we  have  one 
church,  the  Unitarian,  groping  its  way  into  the  very 
portals  of  the  temples  of  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual 
Evolution;  we  have  in  Congregationalism,  while 
clinging  to  remnants  of  the  religion  of  Christianity, 
an  ally  of  the  Eeligion  of  the  Future ;  we  have  quite  a 
number  of  so-called  independent  "churches"  which 
should  be  ready  immediately  to  join  in  the  general  or- 
ganization; we  also  have  amongst  the  Jewish  race  a 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  61 

number  of  congregations  which  reject  the  old  institu- 
tions ;  we  have  also  in  the  so-called  "higher  criticism" 
of  orthodox  Christianity  an  effort  to  reconcile  scien- 
tific truth  with  advanced  Christianity  which  must  of 
its  own  force  eventually  bring  great  numbers  into  the 
religion  which  truly  reconciles  science  with  rational 
Worship  of  the  Infinite  One. 

Finally:  The  author  firmly  believes  that  every- 
where amongst  educated  people  there  are  many  who 
will  welcome  the  opportunity  to  join  in  the  primary 
organization  of  such  a  religion  as  has  been  outlined 
in  this  book,  and  the  expectation  that  comprehension 
of  the  import  of  the  Spiritual  Evolution  of  man  will 
soon  bring  unison  in  a  desire  to  organize  The  Re- 
ligion which  must  follow  such  comprehension,  is  an 
expectation  based  on  the  belief  that  the  Infinite  One 
Himself,  in  His  process,  has  sanctioned  and  encour- 
aged such  an  organization. 


PART  III 

THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  FAMILY 
IN  SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  ETHICAL  STANDARDS  IX  SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION- 
ARE  you  aware  that  in  most  of  your  conduct  and 
your  daily  activities  you  have  been,  now  are,  and 
always,  while  living,  will  be,  affecting  the  Spiritual 
progress  of  humanity  ? 

The  author  could  not,  if  he  would,  nor  could  any 
living  person,  define  the  ultimate  standards  of  con- 
duct which  the  process  of  Spiritual  Evolution  will 
eventually  require  as  the  highest  ethical  conduct  of 
man.  Of  necessity  such  standards  will  be  raised 
higher  by  each  succeeding  generation.  The  Law  of 
the  Upward  Way  gives  God's  sanction  to  this  idea. 
Spencer,  a  strict  deterministic  scientist,  anticipated 
the  thought  expressed.  Discussing  ethical  evolution 
he  found  always  evolving  amongst  men  certain  "high- 
est natures"  (which  the  author  has  in  this  book  para- 
phased  into  "the  farthest  evolved'7),  and  of  these 
"highest  natures"  he  says:  "What  now  in  them  is 
occasional  and  feeble  may  be  expected  with  further 
evolution  to  become  habitual  and  strong;  and  what 
now  characterizes  the  exceptionally  high  may  be  ex- 
pected eventually  to  characterize  all. 

"For  that  which  best  human  nature  is  capable  of, 
is  ivithin  the  reach  of  human  nature  at  large." 

Spencer  could  not  help  seeing  the  unfolding  of  a 
65 


66  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

process  which  tended  towards  the  ethical  advancement 
of  mankind.  The  quotation  shows  a  glimpse  of  the 
Law  of  the  Upward  Way  and  many  of  Spencer's 
thoughts  in  his  "Data  of  Ethics"  disclose  a  partial 
recognition  of  the  Divine  Plan  for  humanity.  His 
hampered  and  incomplete  view  that  we  must  not  at- 
tempt to  ascribe  attributes  to  the  "Cause  of  Things," 
blinded  him  from  perceiving  the  higher  spiritual  im- 
port of  the  Ethical  Process. 

For  a  general  standard  of  all  human  conduct  the 
best  that  we  can  do  is  to  value  it,  in  the  light  of 
the  spiritualizing  process  and  apply  to  it  the  general 
standard : — Does  it  harmonize  with  the  advancement 
of  the  Divine  Plan  for  humanity?  Does  it  tend  to 
uplift  humanity  ?  Of  course  correlatively  the  inquiry 
is :  Does  it  advance  the  individual  spiritually  ? 


The  conscience  of  an  individual  in  ethical  evolu- 
tion may  be  educated  to  the  requirement  of  personal 
conduct  far  beyond  what  may  be  called  the  "commu- 
nity conscience/'  and  again  it  may  be  untroubled 
with  acts  which  should  receive  the  condemnation  of 
all. 

Darkest  Judaism,  and  many  other  religions,  found 
satisfaction  of  conscience  in  the  sacrifice  to  God  of 
innocent  virgins  and  children;  Darkest  Catholicism 
found  surcease  of  conscience  in  as  cruel  tortures  of 
"apostates"  as  ever  savagery  devised;  Darkest  ortho- 
dox Christianity  within  the  memory  of  living  men, 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  67 

in  the  fullest  conscientiousness,  withdrew  from  the 
favor  of  God  (its  own  assumed  portion)  and  con- 
demned to  perpetual  torture  in  a  hell  of  blazing  fire 
and  brimstone  heretics  such  as  the  author,  who  in 
like  fidelity  to  conscience  could  not  believe  in  the  di- 
vinity of  Christ  or  the  Divine  inspiration  of  the 
Christian  bible  in  any  of  its  numerous  versions. 

It  must  be  too  plain  for  controversy  that  what  we 
call  conscience  is  a  function  of  personality  which 
requires  constant  education  toward  a  higher  spirit- 
uality to  inspire  in  the  individual  conduct  which 
shall  be  worthy  of  God's  purpose  that  mankind  shall 
rise  gradually  ever  higher  along  the  upward  way  to- 
wards the  Ideal. 


The  Thought  of  the  ages,  (not  original  with  Je- 
sus, but  undoubtedly  inspired  in  religious  philosophy 
by  the  spiritualizing  process),  "love  toward  God  and 
brotherliness  to  man"  has  long  been  the  great  fore- 
shadowing of  the  way  to  race  salvation.  The  Ee- 
ligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  brings  strong  virility  to 
this  evolutional  idea.  It  involves  for  the  individual, 
worship  and  service.  It  does  not  mean  merely  serv- 
ice to  co-religionists  nor  service  for  self-gratification. 
It  means  constructive  ethical  service  for  all  human- 
ity based  on  growing  unselfishness  which  ultimately 
will  transform  the  present  crude  distribution  of  the 
benefits  of  human  industry  into  substantially  equita- 
ble benefits  between  man  and  man  and  the  whole 


68  THE  EELIGION  OF  THE 

world  over,  and  also  will  transform  the  present  un- 
equal opportunities  of  enjoyment  of  life  into  better 
and  better  opportunity  for  every  man  to  share  with 
his  fellow  men  education,  travel,  art,  the  changes  of 
Climate  and  all  like  opportunities  which  are  ethically 
^ood.  There  are  men  today  who  would  gladly  give 
such  service  unselfishly  and  intelligently.  Evolution 
itself  decrees  that  always  an  increasing  number  will 
gain  the  heights  to  which  these  have  climbed  in  the 
high  altruism  of  the  process  of  spiritualization.  The 
great  service  of  loving  sympathy  and  encouragement 
both  in  words  and  deeds  with  those  in  sickness, 
sorrow  and  distress  is  already  well  understood  as  up- 
lifting alike  to  him  who  gives  and  to  those  who 
receive. 

The  standard  of  unselfishness  must  ever  be  set 
high  in  the  bloodless  battle  for  race  salvation.  Who- 
soever shall  unselfishly  lose  himself  in  service  of  his 
fellow  men  shall  find  his  soul  worthiest  of  survival. 


The  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  has  no  place 
for  mysticism  or  the  occult;  neither  does  it  call  for 
asceticism  or  the  hermit  life.  It  does  not  set  apart 
its  followers  from  those  who  do  not  understand  and 
accept  its  principles.  To  the  contrary  it  requires  the 
most  intimate  association  of  its  followers  with  their 
fellow  men  and  with  every  one  of  the  activities  in 
which  they  engage.  How  can  any  man  or  any  class 
of  men  segregate  themselves  from  the  mass  of  hu- 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  69 

manity  and  expect  to  bring  to  the  race  soul  of  all 
humanity  the  uplift  which  must  come  by  producing 
a  Divine  ferment  in  the  souls  of  their  fellow  men? 


Do  you  wish  to  know  whether  honesty,  truthful- 
ness, sexual  virtue,  temperance  in  food  and  drink, 
charity,  and  respect  for  the  lives  and  persons  of  fel- 
low men,  are  standards  of  conduct  in  the  new  re- 
ligion? In  firm  conviction  I  say  to  you  that  these 
are  but  stepping  stones  to  constructive  virtues  which 
the  struggle  for  race  salvation  will  evolve  and  give 
name  to. 

You  can  be  absolutely  certain  that  no  standard 
of  conduct  which  has  yet  evolved  can  measure  the 
highest  standards  yet  to  come,  and  whatever  there  is 
which  is  now  the  most  conducive  to  strong  unselfish 
spiritual  living  of  the  individual  is  strictly  imposed 
by  the  Religion  of  the  Future. 

Again  let  it  be  remembered  that  conscious  unity 
with  the  Infinite  One  in  working  out  His  plan  for 
humanity  is  a  reward  which  will  bless  every  man  and 
every  woman  who  strives  for  the  spiritual  salvation  of 
the  race.  Higher  work  and  better  worship  lies  not 
within  the  power  of  man. 


CHAPTER  II 

IMMORTALITY 

THE  SUEVIVAL  OF  HUMAN  PERSONALITY  AFTER  PHYSI- 
CAL DEATH 

As  far  back  in  human  history  as  any  records  go, 
humanity  has  asked  of  itself  the  question:  Does 
death  end  all? 

Always,  wherever  science  has  gathered  the  facts, 
amongst  all  races,  and  throughout  all  recorded  time, 
it  has  found  the  belief,  generally  prevailing,  that  hu- 
man personality  does  survive  the  physical  death  of 
the  individual. 

So,  also,  far  back  of  any  human  records,  many 
thousands  of  years,  those  early  progenitors  of  man, 
the  cave  dwellers,  have  left  proof  of  the  same  uni- 
versal belief.  In  some  of  the  graves  of  their  dead 
are  found  food  and  cooking  utensils  as  well  as  weap- 
ons of  war  and  of  hunting.  Also  (most  illuminating 
of  the  budding  of  the  spiritual  growth  of  uplifting 
love)  they  buried  with  their  children  the  toys  with 
which  the  little  ones  had  evidently  played  during 
life. 

However  crude,  however  animalistic,  however  sens- 
70 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  71 

ual,  however  visionary,  or  irrationally  ecstatic,  the 
idea  of  a  future  life  may  have  been,  it  must  be  reck- 
oned with  in  the  underlying  ultimate  fact  that  it  has 
always  served,  feebly  or  strongly,  to  help  uplift  hu- 
manity. It  cannot  be  reasonably  doubted  that  death 
accompanied  by  belief  in  a  hereafter  has  been  a  fact 
of  potent  moment  in  the  Spiritual  Evolution  of  man. 
Furthermore,  whenever  the  individual  has  grown 
to  a  height  where  he  has  pondered  the  problems  of  his 
existence,  his  soul  has  ever  asked  of  the  Infinite 
One,  in  spiritual  yearnings,  the  destiny  of  his  perr 
sonality  when  the  body,  its  earthly  servant,  shall  die. 


Today  the  Religion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  rejects 
belief  in  the  Happy  Hunting  Grounds  of  the  prim- 
itive races;  it  equally  rejects  belief  in  the  sensual 
Paradise  of  the  Moslem  and  the  Mormon ;  and  in  the 
Nirvana  of  the  Buddhist;  and  also  belief  in  the 
ecstatic  heaven  of  the  apostle  John.  Likewise,  it 
discards  credence  in  any  hell  of  everlasting  torment 
or  perpetual  punishment  either  in  the  material  hell 
of  fire  and  brimstone,  taught  in  Christianity,  or  a 
spiritual  hell. 

But  this  religion  does  not  discard  belief  in  immor- 
tality. To  the  contrary,  not  only  does  it  assert  a 
rational  belief  therein,  but  also  it  can  claim,  in  all 
reverence,  that  there  is  in  the  Divine  Plan  for  human- 
ity apparent  proof  of  a  pledge  of  the  Infinite  One 


72  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

that  personality  shall  survive  the  death  of  the  body; 
at  least  the  personality  of  every  one  whose  soul  yearns 
to  progress  spiritually. 

Eegarding  those  who,  during  earthly  life,  volun- 
tarily devote  their  personalities  to  morally  degrading 
sensualities,  or  to  vices  of  continuous  dishonesty,  or 
to  vices  of  continuous  hypocrisy  and  untruthfulness, 
or  to  conduct  which  oppresses  their  fellow  men,  or, 
in  a  general  sense,  to  conduct  which  tends  to  drag 
humanity  downward,  it,  at  least,  raises  a  question 
whether  such  personalities  are  fitted  to  survive  death 
and  enter  the  spiritual  life  beyond  the  grave. 

Do  you  ask  where  the  line  shall  be  drawn?  It 
cannot  be  said  that  there  is  any  such  line,  but  the 
thought  is  suggested  that  a  process  which  makes 
for  righteousness  apparently  finds  as  unfit  for  survival 
those  souls  who  have  no  desire  to  voluntarily  fulfill, 
in  some  decree,  the  objects  of  the  process. 

That  death  marks  a  cataclasm  in  the  history  of 
personality,  is  a  fact  of  supreme  moment,  and  if  the 
Infinite  One,  who  has  granted  moral  volition  to  man, 
finds  a  soul  blackened  with  voluntary  degradation, 
would  it  seem  that  His  plan  will  perpetuate,  in  higher 
life,  such  a  personality. 


What  is  God's  pledge  to  the  soul  which  yearns 
for  immortality,  that  it  may  progress  in  better  right- 
eousne.ss  in  the  spiritual  life  beyond  death,  unham- 
pered with  physical  wants  and  physical  passions  ? 


SPIKITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  73 

The  Infinite  One,  through  his  Divine  Plan,  made 
men  moral  beings  possessed  of  souls  which,  through 
volition,  are  capable  of  spiritual  advancement,  and 
His  great  desire,  evidenced  in  the  import  of  His 
process,  is  that  the  souls  of  men  shall  voluntarily 
choose  conduct  which  conforms  with  His  purpose 
that  the  race  of  men  shall  slowly  be  uplifted  higher 
and  ever  higher  in  the  moral  scale. 

But  the  individual  cannot  await  the  procession 
of  the  race  upward.  In  the  great  process,  with  his 
contemporaries,  he  finds  himself  dominant  for  only 
a  few  years  in  the  purposely  slow  unfolding  of  God's 
great  design  for  all  humanity.  (Again  we  see  that 
Race  Salvation  is  the  supreme  import  of  the  Evolu- 
tion of  man.) 

But  how  futile  would  be  the  whole  plan,  if  death 
ended  the  spiritual  life  of  man.  How  impossibly 
ineffective,  how  untrue  to  its  object,  if  it  destroyed 
personality  just  when  it  had  climbed  a  little  way 
toward  God  and  yearned  beyond  expression  to  pro- 
gress spiritually  to  far  heights,  not  possible  to  the 
day  and  age  of  its  sojourn  on  earth. 

To  make  the  process  of  earth  find  its  physical  evo- 
lutional rest  in  man,  as  its  highest  creature,  and  in 
his  personality,  his  spirit,  as  the  unit  of  its  advanc- 
ing tide  towards  better  righteousness  and  race  salva- 
tion, to  give  him,  in  the  process,  as  an  individual,  a 
little  temporary  place  in  which,  under  the  impulse  of 
the  process,  he  may  voluntarily  build  up  a  character 
which,  under  the  test  of  contemporaneous  environ- 


74  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

ment,  is  worthy  of  survival,  to  have  the  process 
engender  in  him  great  yearnings  to  survive  death, 
so  that  the  character  thus  built  up  may  be  farther 
and  farther  advanced  in  knowledge  and  righteous- 
ness in  a  spiritual  life  beyond  death,  and,  then,  to 
destroy  such  a  personality  through  the  death  of  the 
body,  would  be  actual  stultification  of  one  of  the 
supreme  objects  of  the  process. 

Belief  in  such  an  ending  of  personality  is  to  the 
author  a  rational  absurdity. 

We  are  entitled,  as  moral  beings,  to  seek  the  pledges 
of  the  process  under  which  "we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being"  and,  to  the  author  at  least,  the 
pledge  of  immortality  shines  out  as  a  veritable  neces- 
sity of  the  Divine  Plan.  He  who  builds  his  char- 
acter in  the  righteousness  of  today  is  as  worthy  of 
survival  as  he  who  lives  in  moral  worth  in  the  tomor- 
row of  the  race,  and  the  upward  way  of  the  race 
must  be  earned  through  the  individual  as  the  unit 
of  progress. 


In  lowlier  thought  we  can  also  search  the  realms 
of  science  and  philosophy  for  rational  belief  of  the 
immortality  of  human  personality. 

Scientific  men  of  highest  standing  and  pure  mo- 
tives, through  strict  scientific  investigation  of  alleged 
communications  from  those'  who  have  died,  already 
offer  the  conclusion  that  some  of  the  messages  received 
by  them,  through  unquestioned  psychics,  are  scien- 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  75 

tifically  more  rationally  explicable  as  true  communi- 
cations from  the  dead  than  upon  any  other 
hypothesis. 

That  those  who  are  investigating  this  field  of  phe- 
nomena in  pursuit  of  truth  may  succeed  in  thus 
finding  rational  proof  of  immortality  cannot  be  said 
to  be  scientifically  impossible. 


Science  has  largely  discarded  the  idea  that  the 
human  brain  is  true  personality,  and  that  when  the 
brain  dies,  personality  necessarily  dies  with  it.  The 
knowledge  that  the  brain  dies  daily  and  that  per- 
sonality, the  spirit  of  man,  is  a  developing  unit  from 
birth  to  death,  has  altered  some  conceptions  of  the 
problem  of  immortality. 

Science  now  tells  us  that  in  each  brain  there  are 
myriads  of  changes  constantly  taking  place  in  the 
decay  and  absorption  of  one  set  of  brain  cells  and  in 
the  constant  formation  of  new  brain  cells  to  replace 
those  which  die.  So,  too,  the  whole  human  body  is 
continuously  a  charnel  house  of  untold  myriads  of 
dying  cells  and  also  the  birthplace  of  new  cells  alike 
innumerable.  Under  the  established  order  of  evo- 
lution, personality  uses  the  constantly  changing  cells 
of  infancy,  youth,  middle  age  and  old  age,  to  the 
gates  of  ultimate  irremediable  cell  death,  but  it  uses 
them  merely  as  instruments  of  earthly  evolution,  and 
they  cannot  individually  or  collectively  constitute  the 
spirit  of  man. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  valid  reason  that,  because 


76  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

the  earthly  instrument  of  personality  dies,  the  spirit 
of  man  dies  with  it. 

We  are  not  in  the 'same  scientific  field  in  contem- 
plating physical  life  and  consciousness.  The  scientist 
who  cannot  see  this  distinction  has  forgotten  the  very 
important  fact  that  in  human  philosophy  conscious- 
ness is  the  premier  of  all  phenomena. 

Huxley  (who  decidedly  controverted  materialism), 
after  stating  the  materialistic  idea  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  universe  but  matter  and  -force,  says 
of  personality  (or  its  correlative,  consciousness)  :  "In 
the  first  place  ...  it  seems  to  me  pretty  plain 
that  there  is  a  third  thing  in  the  universe,  to-wit: 
consciousness,  which,  in  the  hardness  of  my  heart,  or 
head,  I  cannot  see  to  be  matter  or  force  or  any  conceiv- 
able modification  of  either,  however  intimately  the 
manifestations  of  the  phenomena  of  consciousness 
may  be  connected  with  the  phenomena  known  as  mat- 
ter and  force.  In  the  second  place,  the  arguments 
used  by  Descartes  and  Berkeley  to  show  that  our 
certain  knowledge  does  not  extend  beyond  our  states 
of  consciousness,  appear  to  me  to  be  as  irrefragable 
now  as  they  did  when  I  first  became  acquainted  with 
them  some  half-century  ago.  All  the  materialistic 
writers  I  know  of,  who  have  tried  to  bite  that  file, 
have  simply  broken  their  teeth. 

"But  if  this  be  true,  our  one  certainty  is  the  exist- 
ence of  the  mental  world,  and  that  of  Kraft  and 
Stoff  falls  into  the  rank  of,  at  best,  a  highly  probable 
hypothesis." 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  77 

There  is  one  great  spiritual  fact,  which  all  who 
believe  in  the  survival  of  human  personality  after 
physical  death  of  the  body  must  take  into  full  account 
and  value  supremely.  The  only  thing  which  per- 
sonality can  take  with  it  beyond  the  grave  is  character. 
Through  all  the  years  from  birth  to  death  each  human 
being  is  building  up  a  personal  character  which  con- 
stitutes the  only  treasure  which  can  pass  the  portals 
of  physical  death,  and,  whether  the  treasure  be  good 
or  less  good,  or  bad  or  less  bad,  it  must  go  with 
personality.  The  great  process  has  so  decreed,  and 
the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  warns  and  admon- 
ishes each  soul  to  at  least  try  to  make  its  character 
worthy  of  survival.  That  there  is  any  sudden  perfec- 
tion of  character  upon  the  passing  of  life  from  the 
body  finds  no  sanction  at  all  in  the  process  of  Spir- 
itual Evolution.  We  are  simply  ourselves  with  all 
which  that  implies. 


To  what  realm  will  the  spirit  of  man  go  when 
its  embodiment  of  earth  becomes  unfit  for  its  dwell- 
ing place  ?  Who  shall  say  ? 

The  spirit  of  a  man,  while  embodied,  in  a  moment 
is  projected,  through  memory  (one  of  its  functions), 
into  any  land  where  the  individual  has  ever  been.  So, 
too,  through  garnered  knowledge,  it  may  go  into  far 
lands  of  earth  and  dwell  in  thought  upon  a  thousand 
things  which  have  not  been  physically  seen.  Again, 
through  the  revelations  of  science,  it  may  contemplate 


78  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the  planets  of  our  solar 
system,  and  then  it  may  go  on  and  on  through  bound- 
less space,  finding  untold  millions  of  suns  greater  than 
ours.  In  abstract  thought  it  may  surround  itself 
with  the  wide  realm,  which  philosophy  opens  up, 
it  may  garner  the  great  fruits  of  the  discovery  of  the 
laws  which  define  the  process  of  physical  evolution 
and  the  laws  which  impel  in  Spiritual  Evolution.  So 
it  must  be  clear,  that  the  spirit  of  man  is  unlike  his 
body  in  being  confined  in  its  activities  to  a  little 
space  of  temporary  environment.  Man's  spirit, 
through  the  device  of  printing,  may  send  a  thought 
into  the  spirits  of  millions  of  other  men,  both  con- 
temporaries and  through  future  ages ;  his  body  brings 
him  into  physical  speech  with  comparatively  few. 

Need  it  be  said  that  a  Divine  Plan  which  gave 
man's  spirit  such  powers  during  its  earthly  embodi- 
ment can  be  trusted  in  highest  faith  in  the  Infinite 
One,  to  provide  a  higher  environment  for  his  person- 
ality in  the  spiritual  life  beyond  the  grave  ? 


CHAPTEK  III 

THE  FAMILY  IN  SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION 

IN  the  development  of  unselfishness  in  human 
character  the  family  has  been  and  is  the  primal  school 
of  the  spiritualizing  process.  Loving  service,  which 
may  blossom  into  uplifting  power  for  humanity, 
begins,  or  should  begin,  in  the  family.  The  natural 
unit  which  includes  the  father  and  mother  and  their 
offspring  is  such  a  unit  as  must  be  reckoned  with  as 
long  as  the  race  of  man  exists.  The  Eeligion  of  Spir- 
itual Evolution  looks  to  the  highest  evolved  family 
life  of  today  as  its  present  best  ideal  of  family  life, 
but  at  the  same  time  it  must  be  steadfast  always  in 
seeking  progress  towards  the  higher  type  which  future 
development  of  increased  spirituality  in  the  family 
will  surely  bring.  Any  student  of  race  progress  must 
find  in  the  best  family  life  of  the  twentieth  century 
much  of  worth  and  uplifting  force. 

The  ideal  of  one  husband  and  one  wife,  united  in 
deep  and  strong  unselfish  love,  seeking  with  clear 
eyes  the  higher  things  of  life,  always  yielding  to  each 
other  loving  forbearance  and  unselfish  loving  service, 
always  seeking  the  best  happiness  of  each  other  and 
of  their  children,  always  uniting  in  parental  love  for 
and  sane  parental  instruction  of  their  children,  and 
always  ready  to  give  loving  service  and  assistance 

79 


80  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

when  required,  to  their  own  parents  and  other  kin- 
dred, finds  many  fulfillments  in  the  family  life  of 
America  and,  undoubtedly,  in  other  lands. 

Many  who  have  found  the  deep  indefinable  union 
which  develops  between  the  husband  and  wife,  who 
gradually  grow  into  oneness  of  spirit  and  love,  have 
caught  a  glimpse  of  something  so  high  and  so  sweet 
they  can  well  believe  that,  flowering  in  the  progress 
of  the  future,  it  will  give  an  uplift  of  wonderful 
power  to  those  who  thus  bless  their  marriage  with 
such  highest  comradeship. 

The  process  of  spiritualization  must  gradually  in- 
crease the  number  who  consciously,  and  with  high 
desire,  seek  and  find  such  unity,  until  the  influence  of 
their  better  happiness  will  fill  the  world  with  better 
family  ideals  and  serve  to  curb  the  animalistic  ideas 
and  passions  which  have  hindered  the  upward  prog- 
ress of  the  family  and  of  the  race. 


The  children  of  the  family,  also,  are  such  a  part 
of  that  racial  unit  that,  in  the  Religion  of  Spiritual 
Evolution,  their  education  and  spiritual  development 
is  of  supreme  importance.  It  is  through  the  com- 
ing generations  the  upward  way  must  be  climbed,  and 
therefore  the  training  of  the  child  to  give  loving  serv- 
ice and  to  build  up  worthy  character  and  to  wor- 
ship the  Infinite  One  in  highest  love  and  reverence,  is 
something  quite  vital  to  the  progress  of  mankind. 
Can  there  be  any  question  that,  in  family  life  properly 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OP  MAN  81 

controlled,  the  child  can  be  trained  so  as  to  be  fitted 
to  do  his  share  in  uplifting  humanity  ?  If  the  parents 
truly  work  for  the  moral  welfare  of  their  children, 
teaching  and  requiring  unselfishness  and  loving  serv- 
ice, at  the  same  time  giving  like  service  to  their 
children,  the  reward  of  a  united  spiritually-minded 
family  will  uplift  both  parents  and  children.  Many 
families,  for  many  generations,  have  at  least  partly 
found  this  blessing,  and  Spiritual  Evolution  teaches 
the  religious  duty  to  bend  every  effort  to  thus  unite 
and  advance  family  life,  so  it  will  help  in  the  struggle 
for  race  salvation. 


The  marriages  which  are  unhappy  and  those  which 
are  wrecked  by  wrong  conduct  of  either  husband 
or  wife,  the  children  who  go  astray,  or  who  make 
their  parents  unhappy,  or  any  other  failure  of  fam- 
ily life,  in  the  ultimate  analysis,  can  be  assigned 
in  very  large  degree  to  the  lack  of  that  continuous 
mutual  love  and  mutual  service  which  the  Ethical 
Process  has  demonstrated  to  be  the  ideal  of  family 
life.  When  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution  has 
raised  up  in  the  hearts  of  any  two  who  are  about 
to  enter  the  married  state,  the  high  resolve  that  they 
will  crush  down  selfishness,  and  always  live  in  the 
highest  comradeship,  with  mutual  forbearance  and 
spiritual  love,  and  will  seek  the  higher  unity  of  pur- 
pose and  effort  which  restrains  animalism,  selfish 
pride  and  unethical  desires,  can  there  be  any  doubt 


82  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

that  mutual  happiness  will  come  with  the  fulfillment 
of  such  resolves  ? 

So,  too,  if  children  are  reared  in  unselfishness  to 
give  loving  service  to  their  parents  and  to  each 
other,  as  a  religious  duty,  and  are  taught  that  thereby 
they  are  consciously  co-operating  with  the  Infinite 
One  in  a  part  of  His  Divine  Plan  for  humanity,  can 
there  be  any  question  that  they  will  develop  personal 
character  of  high  promise  in  climbing  the  Upward 
Way? 


PART  IV 

SOME  MEDITATIONS  RESPECTING 
THE  SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF 
MAN  AND  ITS  RELIGION 


AN  EXPLANATION 

IT  has  seemed  best  to  the  author  to  relieve  the 
constructive  portion  of  this  work  from  a  myriad  of 
related  ideas  which  throng  the  portals  and  aisles  of 
the  invisible  Temple  of  Worship,  which  the  soul  builds 
up  for  itself  in  the  contemplation  of  the  great  process 
of  God;  and  yet  there  may  be  suggestive  power  and 
religious  strength  in  the  expression  of  some  of  these 
reflections.  Therefore,  in  this  part  of  the  book  the 
author  gathers  in  paragraphs,  which  are  only  related 
to  each  other  through  the  main  portion  of  the  work, 
a  number  of  meditations  which  may  be  of  more  or 
less  value  to  the  reader. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    WORSHIP   OF   GOD — FORESHADOWINGS   THROUGH 
THE  PROCESS — A  PHILOSOPHY  OF  LIFE 

I.      THE  WORSHIP  OF  GOD 

Do  you  fear  that  you  will  lose  something  of  the 
sense  of  sublimity  and  of  awe  and  of  reverence  for 
God  in  learning  the  truths  of  the  new  religion  ?  Not 
so;  just  as  human  conceptions  of  the  universe  have 
been  immeasurably  extended  since  the  time  of  Jesus, 
so  the  conception  of  the  eternal  majesty  and  sublimity 
of  the  Infinite  One  must  grow  far  greater  as  you 
contemplate  the  wonders  of  the  Cosmos,  including 
the  will  of  the  Almighty  shining  forth  in  all  the  laws 
of  Cosmic  Evolution. 

Are  the  stars  less  inspiring  now  that  you  know 
that  they  are  wonderful  suns  blazing  in  glory  through 
illimitable  space  and  evidencing  the  progress  of  a 
process  universal  in  the  Cosmos?  Is  the  beauty  of 
the  wild  flowers  less  entrancing  because  you  know 
that  within  the  design  evidenced  in  the  great  process, 
they  flourish  and  fade  under  the  sway  of  natural 
laws? 

Is  the  grandeur  of  the  mountains  or  the  majesty 
of  the  ocean  less  impelling  now  that  you  have  learned 
some  of  the  laws  under  which  they  were  formed  and 
exist? 

85 


86  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

Is  the  innocent  face  of  the  babe  less  love-compelling 
because  you  know  the  biological  history  of  its  ances- 
try far  back  through  millions  of  years  to  the  lowly 
amoeba  ? 

Is  the  love  of  God  less  to  you  because  you  must 
accept  the  truth  respecting  His  cosmos  and  His  plan 
for  humanity  ? 

Comprehend,  0,  my  brother  of  the  race!  that 
every  sublime  thought  which  has  had  the  investiture 
of  truth  for  its  inspiration,  throughout  all  time  has 
come  from  God  as  a  natural  thing  within  the  great 
process  of  the  evolution  of  man,  as  surely  as  did  the 
evolution  of  the  earth  as  a  planet  or  as  does  the  growth 
of  the  rose  bush  in  your  garden.  Comprehend,  0, 
my  sister  of  the  race !  that  the  wonderful  mother  love, 
which  illumines  and  purifies  your  life  and  which  has 
been  greatly  potent  in  uplifting  mankind,  comes  from 
the  Infinite  One  through  His  plan  as  part  of  your 
divine  heritage,  for  your  own  uplifting  and  the  uplift- 
ing of  your  child.  Surely,  we  will  all  worship  the 
Infinite  One  with  inexpressibly  higher  love  and  awe 
and  reverence,  the  more  we  learn  of  His  cosmos  and 
His  wonderful  plan  which  makes  for  righteousness. 


II.      FORESHADOWINGS   THROUGH   THE  PROCESS 

While  never  man  prophesied  by  the  direct  inspira- 
tion of  God,  yet  the  process  of  God  would  seem 
of  its  very  nature  to  bring  into  the  souls  of  men 
great  foreshadowings  of  the  operation  and  import  of 


SPIEITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  87 

the  process.  In  this  sense  the  Keligion  of  Spiritual 
Evolution  has  had  many  prophets. 

Whenever  through  all  the  past  a  philosopher,  or 
a  poet,  a  priest  or  a  layman  has  found  and  expressed 
the  thought  that  man's  way  always  has  been  and  is 
upward,  he  has  foreshadowed  the  Religion  of  the 
Spiritual  Evolution  of  Man. 

Whenever  one  has  taught  the  "brotherhood  of  all 
men"  he,  too,  must  be  held  a  prophet  of  the  new 
religion. 

But,  while  we  may  honor  all  such  teachers  of  the 
past,  and  they  are  very  many,  going  back  in  recorded 
time  far  beyond  Christ,  yet  we  must  steadfastly  face 
forward  and  upward  in  our  struggle  for  race  salva- 
tion, and  always  reflect  that  higher  spirituality  than 
ever  has  been,  will  be,  and  the  coming  foreshadow- 
ings  of  race  progress  along  the  Upward  Way  should 
be  more  and  more  helpful  than  any  of  the  past. 


III.      A  PHILOSOPHY  OF  LIFE 

Every  man  and  every  woman  should  have  some 
intelligent,  consciously  formed  philosophy  of  life.  He 
should,  during  all  his  existence  on  earth,  never  cease 
to  seek  all  ascertainable  truth  upon  which  to  found 
his  conclusions  respecting  his  own  existence  and  every- 
thing which  pertains  to  it. 

If  his  philosophy  of  life  becomes  fixed  without 
his  ever  thereafter  holding  an  open  mind  to  new  facts 
and  new  rational  ideas,  he  is,  indeed,  a  poor  fool, 
though  he  be  a  highly  educated  person.  If  he  fixes 


88  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

either  his  religious  faith  or  his  spiritual  beliefs  upon 
any  particular  "authority"  and  will  not  diligently 
investigate  and  question  the  truth  of  such  author- 
ity upon  rational  grounds,  and  test  its  validity  with 
all  the  intelligence  with  which  he  is  endowed,  then 
he  affronts  the  Infinite  One,  who,  in  His  plan,  gave 
man  intelligence  and  rationality  so  that  he  thereby 
might  find  the  truth. 

If  he  finds  strong  reason  to  doubt  and  abjure  an 
inherited  religion  as  not  truthful  and  as  inconsistent 
with  the  revelations  of  the  working  out  of  God's 
process  for  man,  as  shown  in  the  records  of  ascer- 
tained truth,  then,  if  he  does  not  forsake  the  untrue 
and  turn  to  the  truth,  is  he  not  either  a  moral  coward 
or  a  hypocrite  ? 

Again,  if  he  is  content  with  a  philosophy  of  life 
which  relates  so-called  "personal  liberty"  to  indul- 
gence in  animalistic  appetites  and  desires,  is  he  not 
the  blindest  of  philosophers,  who  really  misses  the 
high  import  of  man's  evolution? 

We  need  men  and  women  with  strong  minds  and 
high  moral  purposes  to  go  on  with  the  work  of  uplift- 
ing humanity,  including  themselves.  Let  us  pray 
to  our  fellow  men  that  they  seek  the  truths  of  exist- 
ence without  ceasing  and  let  us  work  strongly,  boldly 
and  with  highest  spiritual  efforts  for  the  salvation 
of  our  race.  No  better  philosophy  of  life  than  open 
minded  search  for  truth,  rational  worship  of  God, 
clean  living,  and  loving  service  to  our  fellow  men 
can  be  found. 


CHAPTEK  II 

THE  MYSTERY  OP  EVIL — THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW, 
AND  DEATH 

IV.      THE  MYSTERY  OF  EVIL 

WHAT  is  evil  within  the  great  uplifting  process? 
The  term  must  wholly  relate  to  human  conduct  and 
human  character,  and  it  would  seem,  in  the  last 
analysis,  that  it  is  all  which  makes  against  the  spirit- 
ual uplifting  of  the  human  race  and  of  men  as 
individuals. 

Once  the  Divine  Plan  is  comprehended  and  human 
volition  admitted,  we  can  see  in  highest  rationality 
that  evil,  the  antithesis  of  good,  necessarily  arises 
from  man's  power  to  choose  right  conduct,  which 
will  assist  in  carrying  out  the  Will  of  God,  shown 
in  the  process  which  makes  for  righteousness,  or 
to  choose  bad  conduct  which  makes  against  race 
advancement  and  tends  towards  personal  spiritual 
degradation. 

Moral  freedom  brings  a  choice  of  actions  to  man, 
and  the  black  current  of  evil  which  flows  on  in  the 
stream  of  racial  destiny  is  created  wholly  by  the 
conduct  of  man  himself.  Neither  devil  nor  fallen 
angel  nor  power  of  darkness  makes  the  evil  which 
tempts  man  toward  degradation.  It  is  his  own  uncon- 
89 


90  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

trolled  desires  and  passions  which  make  up  the  sum 
of  so-called  "temptation." 

Animalism,  as  a  necessity  of  survival  of  human 
life,  could  not  of  itself  be  evil,  but,  modified  by  the 
intelligence  and  passions  of  man,  it  becomes  a  power 
against  righteousness.  So,  also,  intemperate  vices  of 
drinking  or  eating  owe  their  degrading  power  to  man's 
voluntary  choice. 

Vices  of  untruthf  ulness,  hypocrisy,  irrational  anger, 
avarice,  dishonesty,  inordinate  pride,  gluttony,  selfish- 
ness and  kindred  degrading  wickednesses  of  men  all 
arise  because  man  misuses  the  greatest  gift  of  the 
Infinite  One,  his  moral  freedom. 

Do  you  ask  how  the  existence  of  evil  can  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  idea  that  God  is  infinitely  good  ? 

Can  you  not  see  that  all  earthly  evil  is  first  against 
mankind  in  hindering  the  advance  of  the  race  spiritu- 
ally, and,  therefore,  is  against  God  because  it  impedes 
the  fulfillment  of  His  Divine  Plan  for  man?  Man 
makes  the  evil  of  his  race,  not  God.  What  would 
moral  freedom  be  worth  if  we  did  not  need  to  struggle 
against  choosing  those  things  in  conduct  which  we 
call  evil? 

I  am  aware  that  you  may  say  that  apparently  there 
are  forces  which  make  for  evil,  just  as  there  are 
forces  which  make  for  righteousness.  Yet,  again, 
must  we  view  the  process  of  God  in  its  totality  and 
see  that  the  ultimately  conquering  forces  are  those 
which  tend  to  uplift  humanity.  The  Power  which 
makes  for  righteousness  is  ever  impelling  men  to 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  91 

higher  spirituality,  and  only  man's  own  volition 
brings  to  the  race  that  which  is  unrighteous.  In  a 
realm  of  physical  law  man  alone  of  all  the  creatures 
of  earth  intelligently  chooses  the  forces  of  nature, 
which  he  will  bend  to  his  service.  In  a  realm  of  moral 
forces  he  elects  to  which  he  will  surrender  his  con- 
duct, the  uplifting  forces  or  the  necessarily  opposed 
forces  which  tend  backward  and  downward  toward 
animalism  and  degradation.  Is  it  not  clear  that, 
if  he  had  not  moral  volition,  there  would  be  no 
evil,  for  then  his  conduct  would  not  be  moral,  but 
merely  mechanical  ? 

Let  us  not  waste  our  days  in  pondering  the  mystery 
of  evil,  if  it  be  a  mystery.  Let  us  recognize  its  exist- 
ence as  a  matter  of  man's  own  volition,  and  then  let 
us  attack  it  in  every  possible  way  and  triumphantly 
struggle  against  its  power  amongst  our  fellow  men 
and  in  our  own  personalities.  The  battle  is  well 
worth  waging. 

V.      THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  AND  DEATH 

Within  God's  process  birth  and  death  are  universal 
facts  which  mark  portals  of  personal  existence  through 
which  every  human  being  must  pass.  Man  has  been 
wont  to  welcome  the  new  born  child  in  joyous  anti- 
cipation of  its  earthly  existence,  and  when  death  has 
come,  soon  or  late,  sad  hearts  have  mourned  the  pass- 
ing of  the  loved  personality  into  the  unknown  life 
beyond  the  portal  of  death. 

Disease,  misconduct  of  loved  ones  and  other  trials 


92  THE  KELIGION  OP  THE 

of  life,  through  the  untold  ages  of  the  earthly  journey 
of  the  race  of  mankind,  have  brought  sorrow  and  dis- 
tress into  the  lives  of  countless  millions. 

The  Spiritual  discipline  which  sorrow  and  death 
have  enforced  on  humanity  must  be  valued  in  any 
analysis  of  the  spiritualizing  process. 

He  who  has  struggled  against  excessive  sorrow  and 
despair  because  of  the  death  of  a  loved  one,  and  has 
gained  worthy  peace,  knows  the  discipline  which  he 
has  undergone,  and  he  who  meets  the  afflictions  and 
trials  of  life  with  courage,  serenity  and  high  faith  in 
the  goodness  of  God's  process  has  learned  a  great 
lesson  of  the  higher  duty. 

The  Religion  of  the  Spiritual  Evolution  of  Man 
teaches  to  all  humanity  the  moral  worth  of  encounter- 
ing all  the  trials  and  afflictions  of  life  with  serene 
spiritual  courage  and  faith.  It  says  to  the  individual, 
mourn  not  unduly  the  translation  of  those  you  love, 
from  physical  life  through  death's  portal,  into  the 
realm  of  spiritual  life.  It  teaches  to  us  all  the  great 
lesson  that  the  highest  service  we  can  give  to  those 
who  surround  us  in  times  of  our  sorrow  and  distress, 
is  to  look  beyond  our  own  losses  and  afflictions  to  the 
high  destiny  of  our  race  and  to  the  great  spiritual 
import  of  the  plan  of  the  Infinite  One,  and  there  find 
surcease  from  the  temporary  trials  and  sorrows  of 
earthly  life. 

In  highest  faith  we  can  look  up  to  The  Infinite 
One  for  our  safe  refuge  in  every  sorrow,  and  trial  of 
life. 


CHAPTEK  III 

VI.      NOT  PRAYER  BUT   SPIRITUAL  ADORATION" 

Do  you  think,  because  the  Maker  of  Laws,  whose 
established  order  pervades  a  cosmos  so  vast  that  hu- 
man comprehension  of  it  shrinks  into  insignificance, 
has  ordained  for  man,  that  neither  the  prayer  of  the 
savage  nor  of  the  Confucian,  neither  the  petition  of 
the  Buddhist  nor  of  the  Christian,  nor  the  prayer  of 
any  other  religionist,  can  change  His  will  in  working 
out  under  great  laws  the  destiny  of  mankind,  do  you 
think,  therefore,  that  you  are  debarred  from  send- 
ing out  your  soul  in  adoration  to  the  Infinite  One, 
whose  process  gave  you  your  personality  ? 

There  are  those  whose  egotism  is  so  supreme  that 
in  blindest  faith  they  petition  the  Almighty  to  spe- 
cially care  for  them,  to  guide  and  protect  and  feed  and 
clothe  them.  They  fail  to  see  that  as  "the  rain 
falleth  alike  on  the  just  and  the  unjust,"  so  God's 
process,  in  every  relation  to  every  man,  is  wholly  and 
supremely  impartial. 

A  Christian  far  evolved  spiritually  goes  down  to 
death  in  a  catastrophe  at  sea,  notwithstanding  the 
prayers  to  God  of  himself,  and  of  other  Christians, 
that  his  journey  might  be  free  from  disaster,  while  a 
brutal  sailor,  steeped  in  degradation,  is  saved  because 
he  pushed  the  physically  weaker  Christian  out  of  the 
small  boat  which  was  overloaded  and  would  not 
hold  both. 

93 


94  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

The  wreck  of  a  transatlantic  steamer  a  few  years 
ago  gave  exactly  that  test  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
but  a  natural  law,  the  survival  of  the  strongest,  deter- 
mined the  fate  of  each.  Of  course,  a  million  appar- 
ently favorable  answers  to  prayer  can  be  accounted  for 
rationally  and  truthfully  by  the  operation  of  natural 
law,  and  a  million  unanswered  prayers  alike  find 
their  failure  because  they  seek  things  which  are  denied 
by  natural  law.  My  neighbor  on  the  right  prays  for 
rain  because  his  fruit  trees  need  it,  while  my  neighbor 
on  the  left,  at  the  same  time,  prays  for  dry  weather 
because  his  hay  requires  cutting.  They  have  equal 
faith.  Rain  comes  quickly  by  natural  law,  and  the 
prayer  for  the  salvation  of  the  fruit  crop,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  owner  of  the  trees,  has  been  answered. 
The  Japanese  pray  to  their  ancestral  Gods  for  vic- 
tory against  Russia,  and  the  Russians,  in  all  their 
Christian  churches,  pray  for  victory  to  their  armies. 
Non-Christian  Japan  is  triumphant,  therefore  Chris- 
tians say,  "God  works  in  a  mysterious  way  his  won- 
ders to  perform,"  and  some  say,  "Oh,  the  Russians 
are  not  really  Christians;  they  belong  to  the  Greek 
Church."  The  truth  is  that  the  best  military  organi- 
zation and  highest  patriotism  won  the  struggle, 
irrespective  of  any  prayer  to  anyone. 

During  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries, 
fervent  and  sincere  prayers  in  great  faith  went  up 
continuously  from  Lutherans,  Scotch  Presbyterians, 
Methodists,  and  the  Puritans  of  England  and  of 
America,  that  Almighty  God  would  guide  them  in 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  95 

their  religion  and  their  acts.  Equally  sincere  and 
devout  prayers,  of  like  tenor,  were  addressed  to  God 
by  the  divines  and  laity  of  the  Church  of  England. 
We  must  also  concede  to  leaders  and  adherents  of  the 
"Holy  Catholic  Church  of  Kome,"  during  the  same 
time,  just  as  sincere  and  devout  prayers  that  God 
would  be  their  spiritual  guide. 

Surely,  if  prayer  brought  answers  from  God,  such 
prayers,  through  two  centuries  would  bring  the  Divine 
guidance,  so  that  all  of  these  Christian  churches  and 
sects  would  not  lend  themselves  to  basest  superstition 
and  cruelties  unspeakable  against  poor,  defenseless 
women.  Yet,  if  we  are  to  judge  of  God's  favoritism 
to  a  religious  sect  through  answering  its  prayers,  only 
a  certain  faction  of  the  Church  of  England  received 
God's  guidance  during  these  centuries,  and  some  of 
its  greatest  exponents  were  equally  culpable  with  the 
other  sects  in  the  utter  degradation  of  religious  belief 
which  they  sanctioned  and  encouraged. 

Of  course,  evolved  humanity,  whether  called  Chris- 
tian or  infidel,  knows  now  that  "witchcraft"  was 
never  a  reality,  but  merely  the  imagined  creature  of 
ignorant,  distorted  superstition;  yet  each  of  the 
churches  mentioned,  persecuted,  tortured,  hanged  and 
burned  many,  yes,  literally,  hundreds  of  poor  women 
as  "witches,"  or  sanctioned  and  encouraged  such  acts, 
as  desired  of  God. 

For  one  instance,  in  England,  when  the  Puritans 
were  in  power,  Parliament  issued  a  commission  and 
sent  two  Presbyterian  divines  into  the  County  of  Suf- 


96  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

folk,  with  the  result  that  in  that  county  alone  sixty 
persons  were  hanged  for  witchcraft  in  a  single  year. 
In  Scotland,  at  Leith,  in  1664,  nine  women  accused 
of  witchcraft  were  burned  together.  All  over  Europe 
Catholic  and  Protestant  Communities  vied  in  perse- 
cuting, torturing  and  burning  human  beings  as  "pos- 
sessed" with  witchcraft,  and  Puritan  New  England 
did  its  share. 

Great  names  of  church  history  are  forever  debased 
by  these  proofs  of  Divine  guidance  (?)  in  answer 
to  prayer.  A  long  list  of  Catholic  prelates  and  of 
leaders  of  Protestantism  must  have  been  unfavorably 
regarded  by  God,  if  we  are  to  judge  of  the  misguid- 
ance of  their  souls,  notwithstanding  their  fervent 
prayers.  John  Wesley,  Eichard  Baxter  (he  of  Saint's 
Rest  fame),  Cotton  Mather  and  many  others,  includ- 
ing popes  and  bishops  of  Catholicism,  sanctioned, 
applauded  and  "conscientiously"  advocated  these  per- 
secutions. The  history  of  this  whole  debasing  record 
can  be  read  in  White's  "History  of  the  Warfare  of 
Science  with  Theology,"  a  book  which  every  seeker 
of  truth  should  read. 

The  worst  of  the  fearful  record  is  that  these 
Christian  persecutors  found  in  what  they  call  the 
"Holy  Scriptures,"  the  foul  suggestion  which  induced 
their  acts.  John  Wesley  said:  "The  giving  up  of 
witchcraft  is,  in  effect,  the  giving  up  of  the  Bible," 
but  Science  at  last  drove  the  believers  in  witches  and 
witchcraft  out  of  the  fields  of  human  endeavor.  Yet, 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  97 

all  the  time  they  devoutly  believed  their  prayers 
for  Divine  guidance  were  being  answered. 

Is  not  the  lesson  obvious?  Under  the  Divine  Plan 
man  must  work  out  his  own  destiny.  He  caa  attain 
moral  power  and  strength  to  lead  a  righteous  life  and 
to  help  his  fellow  men  to  advance  spiritually  by  con- 
sciously using  the  spiritual  laws  which  God  has  placed 
within  his  reach,  and  by  always  fearlessly  seeking 
truth,  irrespective  of  claim  of  revelation  which,  of 
necessity,  is  sheer  hearsay  to  all  save  the  one  who 
claims  to  have  received  such  revelation,  and  to  him 
it  is  fraud  or  delusion. 

While  God's  process  denies  the  right  to  ask  any 
special  interposition  of  Providence  in  any  human 
affair,  it  emphasizes  the  right  of  every  human  soul  to 
constantly  send  forth  to  the  Infinite  One  the  adora- 
tion of  spiritual  love  and  highest  worship. 

An  invocation  which  expresses  spiritual  love,  high- 
est reverence  and  all  the  yearnings  of  the  soul  toward 
God  is  inspired  by  the  Divine  Plan  itself. 

We  may  learn,  but  slowly,  all  the  compensations 
which  the  new  religion  offers  for  mistaken  ideals, 
which  the  larger  truth  will  not  permit  us  longer  to 
cherish,  but  reflecting  humanity  has  long  seen  that 
prayer  to  God  has  had  no  objective  force. 

Now  we  can  find  the  subjective  power  of  the  out- 
pouring of  our  souls  to  God  sanctioned  by  the  Infinite 
One  and  revealed  in  His  process. 


CHAPTER  IV 

NO     CHURCHES — PERHAPS    SOCIETIES — THE    LAW    OP 
SPIRITUAL    TRANQUILIZATION 

VII.      NO  CHURCHES — PERHAPS  SOCIETIES 

THE  term,  church,  as  defining  a  body  of  co-relig- 
ionists, belongs  peculiarly  to  the  numerous  antago- 
nistic sects  of  Christianity,  and  as  the  Eeligion  of  the 
Spiritual  Evolution,  of  innate  necessit}r,  rejects  the 
religion  of  Christianity  it  would  seem  primarily  that 
no  attempt  should  be  made  to  appropriate  the  word, 
church,  either  to  represent  the  whole  body  of  adherents 
of  the  Eeligion,  or  any  of  its  congregations  or  the 
edifice  in  which  separate  bodies  of  its  followers  will 
assemble  for  worship  and  instruction.  For  this  rea- 
son, the  author  has  used  the  name,  temple,  for  the 
houses  of  worship  of  the  new  religion.  While  amongst 
religions  of  the  past,  and  some  of  the  present,  the 
temples  have  been  debased  with  sacrificial  and  other 
degrading  ceremonies  and  with  priestly  domination, 
yet  they  have  always  been  the  sacred  places  of  the 
believers  of  the  religion.  Generically,  there  would 
seem  to  be  no  reason  why  the  term  should  not  be 
chosen  to  constitute  the  name  of  the  edifice  wherein 
a  congregation  of  Spiritual  Evolutionists  will  worship. 

As  to  the  name  which  shall  be  given  to  a  body  of 
worshippers  who  unite  together  at  one  place,  a  sug- 

98 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  99 

gestion  may  not  be  deemed  amiss.  The  association  of 
a  number  of  co-religionists,  in  one  common  effort, 
finds  the  word,  "society,"  as  one  accepted  and  appro- 
priate designation.  It  may  be  that  a  better  word 
can  be  found,  but  if  the  constructive  suggestions  of 
this  book  are  acted  upon  by  Spiritual  Evolutionists, 
some  such  designation  must  be  accepted.  There  will 
be  local  societies  and  general  societies  if  any  effective 
organization  is  made. 


VIII.      THE  LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  TRANQUILIZATION 

In  this  age,  in  which  great  changes  are  taking  place 
in  the  religious  views  of  humanity  at  large,  it  is, 
perhaps,  very  natural  that  there  should  have  arisen 
sects  and  cults  which  base  their  tenets  on  a  single 
great  spiritual  law,  comprising  a  part  of  the  Ethical 
Process  under  which  humanity  is  advancing. 

It  is  supremely  significant  that,  no  matter  what 
false  premises  such  a  sect  may  assign  to  utilize  the 
great  law,  its  influence  for  good  becomes  operative 
whenever  humanity  surrenders  to  its  beneficent  power. 

So  called,  Christian  Science,  the  New  Thought, 
mental  suggestions  by  physicians  to  patients,  and 
the  power  of  auto-suggestion  in  conquering  disease,  all 
relate  to  a  single  beneficent  law,  which  the  author 
terms  the  Law  of  Spiritual  Tranquilization. 

What  follows  is  offered  more  as  a  suggestion  of  the 
nature  of  this  law  than  as  its  scientific  formulation. 
As  a  matter  of  scientific  truth,  it  is  fully  recognized 


100  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

by  physicians  and  psychologists  that  certain  mental 
states  of  individuals  produce  numerous  disorders  of 
the  functional  activities  of  the  human  body.  Worry, 
anxiety,  mental  harassments,  sorrow,  and,  in  general, 
nervous  strain  produced  by  any  cause,  tend  strongly  to 
so  disturb  the  entire  nervous  system  as  to  produce  by 
reflex  action  indigestion,  insomnia,  and  a  long  train 
of  other  physical  disorders,  which  may  result,  if 
unchecked,  in  insanity  or  death,  or  a  life  of  unhappi- 
ness  and  misery.  Also  it  is  well  known  that  the 
mental  condition  of  a  patient  may  greatly  aggravate 
the  severity  of  a  disease  or  it  may  greatly  assist  in 
recovery.  These  are  facts  of  scientific  observation, 
quite  universal  amongst  all  peoples  of  earth. 

Christian  "Science"  would  say  that  all  pain  and 
disorder  is  simply  the  product  of  "mortal  mind," 
but  one  must  fancy  that  if  this  kind  of  a  scientist  puts 
on  a  pair  of  shoes  several  sizes  too  small  for  his  feet, 
that  the  resultant  pain  arises  not  from  "mortal  mind," 
but  because  of  two  laws  of  the  Infinite  One,  the  first 
that  two  bodies  cannot  occupy  the  same  space  at  the 
same  time,  and  the  second  that  undue  temporary 
constriction  of  human  feet  will  produce  a  condition  of 
pain  which  cannot  be  excluded  from  the  consciousness 
of  the  normal  individual.  Of  course,  the  law  con- 
trolling the  latter  phenomena  is  much  broader  than 
here  stated. 

As  "mortal  mind"  must  necessarily  mean  all  that 
lies  within  human  consciousness,  it  rather  staggers 
one  to  contemplate  a  so-called  "science,"  which  would 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  101 

obliterate  human  intelligence.  That  would  be  "Nir- 
vana," indeed.  If  it  is  said  there  is  some  occult  seg- 
regation of  one  part  of  consciousness  called  "mortal 
mind"  from  another  part  called  "the  thought  of  the 
Infinite,"  then  a  sufficient  answer  is,  that  all  that 
exists  is  within  "the  thought  of  the  Infinite,"  includ- 
ing human  pain  and  disease. 

But  Christian  "Scientists"  are  using,  with  consid- 
erable success,  in  the  alleviation  of  diseases  or  func- 
tional disorders  created  by  mental  disturbances,  the 
Law  of  Spiritual  Tranquilization.  So,  too,  with  equal 
success  in  like  disorders,  the  followers  of  the  New 
Thought  are  using  the  same  law. 

Likewise,  physicians  have  for  ages  used  this  great 
law  of  healing  by  making  tranquilizing  suggestions  in 
treating  diseases  which  owe  their  origin  to  nervous 
disarrangements  or  are  affected  thereby.  A  mother 
uses  the  same  law  when  her  child  is  hurt  and  she 
suggests  to  it  that  the  pain  will  soon  go,  and  "kisses 
the  spot  to  make  it  well."  Also,  many  a  man  and 
many  a  woman  has,  by  auto-suggestion,  obtained  the 
blessings  of  this  law. 

Tranquilization  of  one's  spirit  may  come  through 
many  channels  of  suggestion,  and  then  the  benefits 
of  the  law  will  come  if  the  serenity  of  soul  which 
the  law  makes  possible  is  attained. 

In  the  Eeligion  of  Spiritual  Evolution,  it  is  most 
desirable  that  we  should  learn  more  and  more  about 
this  law,  and  in  its  use  that  we  should  clearly  ascribe 
its  beneficent  power  to  the  Infinite  One.  It  is  part  of 


102  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE 

His  Divine  Plan  that  the  soul  may  thus  highly  rule 
in  serene  religious  strength,  the  ever-sensitive  nervous 
system,  and  that  amongst  disorder  and  disease  tran- 
quil hope  shall  bring  blessings  to  him  who  surrenders 
to  the  potency  of  the  law. 

One  can  say  to  his  brother  of  the  race,  or  to  his 
sister  of  the  race,  "Lift  up  your  soul,  in  high  faith, 
to  the  Infinite  One,  and  fill  it  with  the  knowledge  that 
His  Plan  for  mankind  is  righteous  and  the  highest 
good.  Tranquilize  everything  within  your  conscious- 
ness. Crowd  out  every  thought  which  hinders  the 
attainment  of  serene,  constant  hopefulness.  Then, 
no  matter  whether  pain  wracks  your  body  or  disease 
drags  it  downward  toward  physical  death,  you  have 
triumphed  in  your  soul,  and  that  is  most  worthy 
within  the  design  of  God." 


CHAPTER  V 

A  RELIGION  OF  HAPPINESS  AND  OPTIMISM 

CONCLUSION 
IX.      A    RELIGION    OF    HAPPINESS   AND   OPTIMISM 

IN  the  law  of  the  Upward  Way  inheres  great 
spiritual  hope  and  a  pledge  of  ethical  happiness  to 
everyone  who  will  comprehend  its  meaning  and  will 
join  in  furthering  its  divine  potency  upon  the  destiny 
of  man.  When  one  seeking  truth  and  willing  to  fol- 
low its  dictates  has  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction  of 
his  intelligence  that,  under  design  of  God,  the  human 
race  is  ever  progressing  toward  higher  spirituality, 
then,  hoping  for  the  better  and  working  for  the  better, 
become  the  sources  of  religious  optimism  and  spiritual 
happiness  which  cannot  fail  to  bless  the  life  of  such 
a  one. 

In  a  practical,  way,  the  Eeligion  of  the  Spiritual 
Evolution  of  Man  will  open  up  vast  and  ever-expand- 
ing fields  of  human  endeavor  for  race-uplifting,  which 
will  give  happy,  strong  purpose  to  the  spiritual  life 
of  each  person  who  truly  seeks  to  carry  out  the  objects 
of  the  religion,  and,  likewise,  will  make  happy  and 
hopeful  all  the  daily  life  of  the  true  believer  in  the 
religion. 

103 


104  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 

When  many  shall  join  in  united  intelligent  effort 
to  crush  down  and  destroy  the  things  which  hinder 
the  spiritual  progress  of  mankind  and  to  build  up 
and  foster  all  which  tends  to  bring  the  human  race  to 
higher  spirituality,  can  there  be  any  question  that  the 
individual  will  find  happiness  and  religious  satisfac- 
tion in  helping  on  the  great  work  ?  Will  not  spiritual 
life  become  broadened  and  the  appreciation  of  nature 
in  all  its  phases  become  more  satisfying  when  it  is 
comprehended  that,  within  the  process  of  God,  purest 
and  highest  love,  as  well  as  the  sense  of  grandeur, 
beauty  and  joy  and  ethical  pleasure,  well  up  in  human 
consciousness  as  part  of  the  supreme  fact  that  the 
Infinite  One  is  immanent  in  all  His  plan  for  man  and 
in  all  His  works  in  the  Cosmos  ? 

Will  not  the  expansion  of  such  ideas  in  the  souls  of 
men  bring  into  their  daily  lives  a  source  of  personal 
happiness  which  will  carry  them  through  life's  trials 
and  struggles  with  supreme  faith  in  the  ultimate  good- 
ness of  all  which  exists  and  which  will  prevent  a 
surrender  of  their  souls  to  despair  or  hopelessness  ? 

Doubtless  we  must  slowly  learn  the  better  happiness 
and  many  of  us  who  are  now  living  will  fail  to  get 
more  than  glimpses  of  its  coming  glory,  which  will 
beautify  the  lives  of  those  who  follow  us  in  life's 
great  stream,  but  this  better  happiness  is  as  surely 
foreshadowed  in  Spiritual  Evolution  as,  in  cosmic 
evolution,  is  the  continuity  of  human  life  into  the 
far  ages  of  a  time  we  cannot  now  measure. 


SPIRITUAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  105 

X.      CONCLUSION 

In  concluding  this  book,  the  author  sends  this  mes- 
sage to  everyone  who  believes  in  evolution  as  a  unified 
process  under  which  the  Cosmos  is  unfolding,  both  as 
a  material  universe  and  as  a  psychic  universe. 

If  you  have  not  already  sought  knowledge  of  the 
full  import  of  the  evolution  of  man,  if  you  have 
not  valued  the  progress  of  the  human  race,  from 
the  ape-like  men  to  the  highest  ethical  natures  of 
today,  if  you  have  not  seen  the  design  of  the  Infinite 
One  in  all  evolution,  I  beseech  you  to  begin  anew  your 
search  for  truth,  and  with  honesty  and  spiritual  desire, 
endeavor  to  bring  into  your  own  soul  the  proof  of  the 
essential  harmony  between  science  and  religion,  which 
surely  exists,  and  if  you  find  such  harmony,  do  not 
fail  to  become  one  of  those  who  will  teach  it  to  all 
mankind. 

To  the  many  who  have  perceived  the  truth  respect- 
ing the  evolution  of  man,  that  our  race  is  slowly 
rising  to  higher  spiritual  life  under  the  Divine  Plan 
for  humanity,  I  ask:  Is  it  not  our  common  and 
imperative  duty  to  broadly  organize  a  religion  for 
uplifting  all  mankind  to  which  we  can  give  highest 
spiritual  allegiance  within  the  safe  realms  of  scientific 
truth? 

I  believe  in  my  soul  that  God,  through  the  Spiritual 
Evolution  of  Man,  has  so  ordained. 

THE  END 


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